Taken

by Benedict Jacka

  Behind, Natasha’s face twisted in sudden rage.

  “Luna!” I shouted.

  Dark blue-green light streamed from Natasha’s hand and this time there was no azimuth shield to stop it. Luna had started to turn and the movement took her partly out of the line of the spell but not quite far enough. It splashed across her side and lower back.

  Luna hit the floor with a shriek. A second later the arbitrator grabbed Natasha, dragging her off the piste. I was running for Luna but as I reached the piste I checked myself. Luna was writhing on the floor in pain and her curse was active and uncontrolled, twisting and striking blindly. If I came any closer—

  Then Anne was there and she didn’t hesitate. She dropped to her knees beside Luna, pulling Luna over onto her front. Luna screamed again and as I saw her back I drew a breath in horror. Natasha’s spell had eaten through Luna’s clothes and skin, revealing red muscle and white bone. And as Anne touched her, Luna’s curse jumped into her, tendrils wrapping around Anne and soaking through her skin. If Anne was aware of what Luna’s curse was doing she didn’t show it. She placed her hands on Luna’s back at the edge of the horrible injury and concentrated.

  Soft green light flared up, linking the two girls together. Luna arched her spine, but she wasn’t screaming anymore. The blood soaking from the wound stopped flowing, and as I watched the ruined muscles began to regrow, interlacing and rebuilding themselves before my eyes. White bone disappeared beneath flesh and the flesh disappeared beneath a new layer of pale white skin. It was over in seconds. Where Luna’s back had been a ruined mess, now it was bare and flawless. The only sign of the wound was the ragged hole in her clothes.

  Anne tried to get to her feet, staggered, and nearly fell. Luna’s curse was still streaming into her and I jumped in and drew her away out of range. Luna sat up on the floor, but she was obviously dazed and didn’t know what was going on. The hall was filled with shouts and noise. I held Anne up and an instant later Variam was there, supporting her as well. I could see the silver mist of Luna’s curse glowing around Anne—

  —And with a snap it was gone. I whirled, going tense. I’ve seen Luna’s curse triggering enough times to recognise it. Something was coming for Anne and I tried to watch in every direction at once, expecting danger any moment.

  Seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Luna was trying to get to her feet. “Luna,” I called. “Luna! We’re getting out of here.”

  Luna wasn’t in any state to argue. I was vaguely aware of people trying to talk to us but I didn’t care; I needed to get Anne and Luna somewhere safe. Somehow we got out of the duelling hall and into the corridor, me leading while Variam brought up the rear. My shoulders itched as we hurried down the hall. I didn’t know what was coming, but it was going to be bad.

  Nothing came. We made it back to Anne and Luna’s room without anything happening.

  I shut the door and locked it as Luna collapsed on the bed. Anne was sitting leaning against the wall, eyes closed, and she actually looked more drained than Luna. “Variam,” I said. “Will they be okay?”

  “They’ll be fine.” But Variam was frowning. “Isn’t it dangerous getting close to—”

  “Yes,” I said. I was still trying to make sense of it. Luna and her bed and her clothes glowed with silver mist, but Anne had nothing. The only way that could make sense was if the curse had already activated . . . but if it had, why wasn’t anything happening?

  “Be okay,” Anne said drowsily. “Just a little while.”

  Now that Anne and Luna were out of danger I was torn between wanting to stay with them to make sure they were safe, and wanting to find Natasha and kill her. Wanting to keep them safe won. “What about Luna?” I asked Anne.

  “It’s weird,” Anne said. She still sounded half-asleep. “What you said last night? Now I feel like someone’s watching me . . .”

  Something about the words gave me a chill, but it was hard to concentrate with Luna like this. “Is Luna going to be okay?”

  “What? Oh.” Anne shook herself and seemed to come awake. “Yes. She just needs a rest.”

  I looked over at Luna. She was sprawled on her bed with one hand resting on the pillow and she seemed to have fallen asleep. As I looked into the short-term future I began to calm down a little. It was hard to see far but I couldn’t see anything catastrophic happening to anyone just yet.

  “Um,” Anne said. She sounded a little embarrassed. “I’m going to need something to eat.”

  “I’ll get you something,” I said. “Don’t leave this room.” I glanced at Variam. “Stay with them.”

  Variam nodded.

  * * *

  It took a little while to find the kitchens and talk the staff into getting me something. I kept getting distracted by thoughts of what Natasha had done, and every time I did I felt a wave of white-hot rage. I wanted to go after her but knew that in my current state it would be a really bad idea. From the noise and the lack of crowds I could tell that the tournament was still going on, and that pissed me off even more.

  I got back to Anne and Luna’s room and had just set down the tray to knock on the door when I stopped. The door was open.

  I pushed the door open with my left hand, my right slipping inside my coat. Luna was alone in the room, sprawled on the bed right where I’d left her, the silver mist of her curse twining lazily around her body as she slept. Anne and Variam were gone.

  What the hell?

  I scanned the immediate futures but couldn’t find anything. With the mansion’s wards I couldn’t see far enough to find out where they were. I leant back out into the corridor and saw a girl peeking out of a room two doors down. “Hey,” I said. “Where did the apprentices in this room go?”

  “I don’t know . . .”

  As I looked at the girl I recognised her. She was the same one I’d seen Anne talking to two days ago. “What’s your name?”

  “Celia.” The girl came hesitantly out of her room, drawing a little closer. She was small, with blond hair and glasses. “Is Anne okay?”

  “Where did she go?”

  “They took her away.”

  “Who?”

  “Two mages. They said they were from the Council?”

  “Where did they take her?”

  “I don’t know. Variam went with her, he was shouting . . .”

  My phone rang. I took one glance at who it was, then pointed to Luna and Anne’s room. “I need you to help my apprentice. Stay in that room and keep an eye on her. Don’t go near her, just make sure she’s not left alone. Okay?”

  Celia hesitated. “Okay.”

  As Celia disappeared into the room I took out my phone, hit the Talk button, and started walking. “Talisid, can you explain to me why two mages who sound a hell of a lot like Council Keepers just took Anne away for questioning?”

  “You’ve heard, then.” Talisid sounded troubled.

  “No, I just like making lucky guesses. Of course I’ve heard.” I reached an intersection and stopped to think. The Keepers would have taken over a room for interrogation. It wouldn’t be in the bedroom wing, it would be somewhere quieter . . . I picked a direction and started walking again. “What the hell are they thinking?”

  “I’ve been on the phone to the department. Apparently they’ve received some new information linking Anne Walker to the disappearances.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Anne’s one of the ones helping me. What information?”

  “There was a tip-off from an apprentice—”

  “Natasha. Jesus.” I covered my eyes. “She doesn’t have a clue what she’s talking about. They’re arresting her over apprentice gossip!”

  “That wasn’t all. How much do you know about this girl?”

  “Why does it matter?” I took a glance down an empty corridor, searching through the immediate fut
ures of opening the doors. Nothing was there and I kept going, navigating by the distant murmur of sound from the duelling hall.

  “After they received the tip-off they did some investigation. And they found that Anne Walker knew or was in contact with all four missing apprentices.”

  “Every apprentice knows every other apprentice. It’s not that big a community.”

  “There’s more.” Talisid didn’t sound happy. “They found that in each case Anne had been in a position to learn where that apprentice would be just a day or two before their disappearance. And with the first victim, Caroline Montroyd, Anne seems to have been the only one who was told.”

  I stopped. “How?”

  “We always knew there was someone feeding information from the inside. We may have found that someone.”

  I started walking again and quickened my pace. “It’s circumstantial.”

  “Maybe it is. But I’m looking over the report right now and I assure you it’s very suspicious. Especially concerning a subject who was a Dark apprentice.”

  “She wasn’t a Dark apprentice,” I said in frustration. “Her or Variam. They got kidnapped into it.”

  “How do you know?” Talisid asked.

  “They told me.”

  “Has anyone else confirmed that story?”

  “No . . .”

  “I see.”

  “This doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Someone’s been trying to kill Anne. She’s the target.”

  “Didn’t you say you thought there were two groups doing this?” Talisid said. I started to answer but he carried on, cutting me off. “Look, it’s not yet established that she’s a willing accomplice. She could be being used as an information source without her knowledge.”

  I thought of how Anne always seemed to know what was going on amongst the apprentices. Luna’s words: The younger apprentices really like Anne. They tell her everything. Something uneasy twisted inside me.

  I heard the sound of raised voices ahead. One of the voices was Variam’s, and as I heard it something fell into place. “I’ve found them,” I said. “I’ll call you back.”

  Talisid sighed. “Please try not to do anything stupid.”

  “When have I ever done that?”

  “I’ll let you fill in the response to that yourself,” Talisid said. “Good luck.”

  I switched off the phone and looked down the corridor. A mage was standing in front of a closed door, arms folded, and Variam was shouting at him. One or two heads were peeking out of doors to see what the noise was about, but the tournament was still running and most of the mansion’s population was in the duelling hall.

  I walked out around the corner. “You can’t do this!” Variam was shouting. “You have to—”

  “Variam,” I said. “We need to talk.”

  Variam and the mage both turned to me. The mage was lean and tough-looking, his eyes impassive. “This one yours?” he asked me.

  “Variam,” I said again.

  Variam shot the mage a glare, then stalked down the corridor towards me. “They’ve got Anne in that room,” he said as we turned the corner. “They won’t let me in—”

  I opened a door to the left. It led into a small boxroom. Variam walked in and I closed the door behind us as Variam kept talking. “Look, you’ve got to do something. They think she—”

  “Shut up,” I said.

  Variam stopped, turning to stare in surprise.

  “I just got off the phone with Talisid,” I said. “Remember Talisid? The guy who got me to investigate these disappearances?”

  “Yeah.” Variam still looked taken aback. “So wh—”

  “How did you know that?”

  “What?”

  “How did you know I was working for Talisid?”

  “Uh—you were talking about it, last—”

  “Last night in the woods, yeah. But you knew before. You told me at the motorway services while Anne was having that chat with Hobson.”

  Variam hesitated. “You must have—”

  “After I got home from that duelling class four days ago I got a message pointing me towards Fountain Reach,” I said. “You know what really bothered me about that message? How fast it was. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I started to think that the one who’d sent it must have been at the duelling class too. But even then there was a problem. Talisid hadn’t shown himself to you or Lyle or Charles or Natasha or anyone else. All you guys saw was me and Luna leaving the room and then coming back. But that doesn’t matter to Anne, does it? She can pick out a living person through a wall with no trouble at all. She would have known we were talking to Talisid. And she trusts you. She would have told you.”

  Variam didn’t move. “So you sent me that message,” I said. “And I think I know why. Talisid just told me that all four missing apprentices had a connection to Anne. I think you’ve known that for a long time and you’ve been terrified someone else will find out. That was why you sent me to Fountain Reach. You were trying to get me looking there instead of at her.”

  “I—” Variam stopped. “No, I didn’t.”

  “You probably sent the same message to Onyx too,” I said. “And nearly got me killed as a result, not that you seem to care. For all I know you spammed a dozen mages and we’re just the ones who happened to pay attention. What I want to know is why. You didn’t pick Fountain Reach out of a hat. What did you know about this place that made you send us here?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know what?”

  Variam hesitated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Bullshit! Tell me what you know, now.”

  “Screw you,” Variam said. He was starting to get angry again. “Why should I trust you?”

  I stared at Variam for a second, then turned on my heel. “You’re on your own.”

  “Hey!” Variam shouted.

  I looked back at him. “Hey, what?”

  “You’re supposed to be helping Anne!”

  “Helping Anne?” I let go of the doorknob and stalked towards Variam, looming over him to stare into his eyes. Variam drew back, startled. “You ungrateful little shit. Since we met I have done everything I possibly can to protect you and Anne and you have given me nothing but grief for it. It’s because of me those assassins didn’t kill Anne four days ago and it’s because of me those constructs didn’t kill both of you last night. I’ve risked my life to help you and I haven’t asked for a thing in return except your cooperation. Now I find you’ve been trying to manipulate me from the start and you have the nerve to ask why you should trust me? You can’t even do something as simple as watch over Luna while she’s asleep and helpless. You’ve been right on the fence between asset and liability for a while now and you just took a dive down the liability side.” I shook my head and turned back towards the door. “I’m done wasting time on you.”

  Variam caught my shoulder. “Wait!”

  “For what? For you to spin me more bullshit?”

  “I need your help,” Variam said. It sounded like it was difficult for him to get the words out, but he managed. “To help Anne.”

  “I’ve been doing nothing but helping Anne.”

  “All right,” Variam said. He looked nervous. “I’ll tell you.”

  “The truth this time?”

  Variam nodded.

  “Fine,” I said. “But listen closely, because I’m only going to say this once. If I catch you lying to me one more time I’m going to cut you loose for good. And Variam?” I leant in close. “I’m very good at knowing when people are lying to me.”

  Variam flinched slightly and I pulled back. “Why Fountain Reach?”

  “Look, I wanted to tell you,” Variam began. “I just couldn’t see how it was any us
e.”

  “Where did you get the name?”

  “Jagadev,” Variam said. “I went to him, after Vanessa. He told me the disappearances were connected to Fountain Reach but he wouldn’t say why.”

  “Did he say anything about how or who?”

  Variam shook his head.

  “How long have you known that it was something to do with Anne?”

  “It’s not! She’s not doing anything, none of us are! It’s just . . . I thought it was just a coincidence. I mean, there aren’t that many apprentices. But when every one of them seemed to . . . I knew what they’d think. Everyone always thinks we’re some kind of monsters. I knew they wouldn’t listen to us.”

  “So you tried to push everyone away.” I shook my head. “If you’d told me earlier I could have gone looking for an explanation. Now she’s already been arrested and we’re up against the clock. You’ve made this a hell of a lot more difficult.”

  “I’m sorry,” Variam said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

  I sighed and put a hand to my head, tapping my fingers against my forehead. “All right,” I said. “All right. The Council can be assholes, but they’re not incompetent. If those Keepers have arrested Anne it probably means there’s real evidence against her. Do you think Anne’s been helping kidnap these apprentices?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Neither do I. That means someone must be using Anne as an information source. We need to talk to her and find out all the people she’s been speaking to. Then we can narrow down who it might be.”

  Variam perked up. “Yeah. Okay.”

  I started for the door and paused. “Oh, and it’s about time you dropped the rebellious teenager act. We’re about to talk to Keepers. Be polite.”

  Variam looked indignant. “But they—”

  “I know what they did and I know how you feel about it. But all it’ll do is make them more likely to say no. You’re an adult; time to start acting like it.”