Taken

by Benedict Jacka

  “Yep,” Sonder said. “Is there anything else?”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “Go ahead and take the van back. Thanks for the help.”

  “It’s okay,” Sonder said. “Uh, you know, I could probably find somewhere they could use. The Council has a few buildings that are pretty much always empty.”

  I shook my head. “You’ve done more than enough.”

  Sonder hesitated. “Have you told them about . . . ?”

  “What you found out about Jagadev?” I asked. “No. And to be honest, I’m not sure I’m going to.”

  Sonder looked startled. “Really?”

  I nodded. “But . . .” Sonder said. “It’s the truth. I mean, I know it’s not going to be fun for them to hear, but . . .”

  “You did the research on Anne and Variam’s family history,” I said. “How much of an extended family do they have?”

  Sonder thought for a moment. “I don’t think they have much of one. Not in their generation anyway. Variam used to have—”

  “Right. How many of those deaths do you think were from natural causes?”

  Sonder paused. “Oh.”

  “And how do you think Variam in particular is going to react when he finds out?”

  “Um. I guess he’s not going to be happy.”

  “No,” I said. “He’s not.”

  We stood by the van in silence for a moment. “What are you going to do?” Sonder asked.

  “Sooner or later they’re going to have to know,” I said. “But . . . I think I’m going to wait. At least until things quiet down.”

  “I guess,” Sonder said. “Are we still on for dinner?”

  “Sure. Drop by whenever you like.”

  As Sonder drove the van away I picked up the box and carried it back to the shop. As I did I noticed that a couple of customers were hovering around the front door. “Hi,” one of them said as I fumbled for the handle. “Are you open?”

  “Sure,” I said, shouldering the door open. “Come in and—” I stopped as I realised no one was behind the counter.

  “Do you work here?” the younger one said.

  “Yeah.” I put the box down and headed past the counter for the hall. “Wait just a sec and I’ll find the sales manager.”

  I heard the argument from all the way down the stairs. “You are not leaving that crap all over my room,” Luna was saying.

  “It’s where I’m staying, all right?” Variam said.

  “I don’t care where you stay but you’re not staying here.”

  “You said this was a spare room!”

  “I told Anne this was a spare room. I didn’t say you could have it.”

  “This is such bullshit,” Variam said. “You don’t even live here.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes classes run late and I sleep over, and I don’t want to be picking your dirty clothes off the floor.”

  “My clothes aren’t—”

  “Hi,” I said, sticking my head through the door of the spare room. “Is there a problem?”

  “Variam wants my room,” Luna said with a frown. She was standing in front of the camp bed with her arms folded.

  “It’s not your room—” Variam started.

  “All right,” I cut in. “Let me break it down for you guys. I have two rooms available, the living room and the spare. I don’t care who sleeps where, but if you’re a guest here you should be polite to your host, and if you’re a host you should be trying to make your guest feel comfortable.”

  Luna and Variam looked at each other, then back at me. “Okay?” I said.

  “Okay,” Luna said.

  “So who gets the room?” Variam said.

  “You’re over twenty years old,” I said. “Sort it out yourselves. Oh, and Variam, the rest of your boxes are downstairs, and Luna, you’re supposed to be minding the shop.”

  Luna sighed and obeyed. Variam followed. As I left I heard them start arguing again.

  I wandered into the living room to find the rest of the boxes in a pile, stacked neatly but unopened. I thought for a minute, then went out onto my balcony and climbed the ladder to the roof.

  There’s not much on the roof of my flat—a little parapet around the edge, one chimney, and that’s it. It’s bare and cold and there’s no shelter, but I love coming up here all the same and it’s because of the view. The edges of the roof go out just far enough that you can’t look down into the street, but other than that there’s no direction you can’t see. As I climbed I could hear the sounds of the city all around us; the whistling of the wind on the rooftops, the creak of stone and metal from the buildings nearby, the low steady growl of traffic. Voices echoed up from the streets around, a train rumbled along one of the railway bridges in the middle distance, and far overhead an airliner drew a clear contrail of white across the blue sky. Millions of people, millions of stories, all blending into the sounds of London.

  Anne was sitting on the parapet, looking southward over the skyline with her hands around her knees. She looked back as I crossed the roof. “Cold?” I asked.

  Anne shook her head and I sat down next to her with a sigh. It really was a great view. “Are Luna and Vari okay?” Anne asked.

  “Oh, they’ll be fine. Just sorting out the pecking order.”

  “Thank you for letting us stay here,” Anne said. “And . . . for everything else.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “When Vitus took me . . .” Anne said. She was staring down at the building opposite, and she had to stop and take a breath before she could go on. “I was so scared I couldn’t think. I was lying on that table, trying to keep myself alive and hide my life so he couldn’t find me. I didn’t know if I could do it. The first time nearly killed me and I knew if Vitus came back to take any more of my blood I’d die. Then I felt you come in and Vari and Luna and . . .” She looked up at me, red-brown eyes serious. “I wasn’t scared anymore. I knew you’d come.”

  I looked away. I always get uncomfortable when people are grateful to me—I’m never sure I really deserve it. “Eh. The only reason it was me was because I made Variam stay back and guard the entrance.”

  “Vari always fights,” Anne said simply. “He always tries to protect me and I know he’ll never give up. But I don’t know if he’ll be okay. Usually . . . I guess it’s like I need to be responsible for everyone. And I don’t mind or anything, but . . . It feels like I don’t need to worry about that so much that when you’re around. It’s nice.”

  “You know, I’ve always wondered,” I said. “What is the deal with you and Variam? How did you get to know each other?”

  “Everyone asks that,” Anne said with a slight smile. “We met because of another boy called Harbir. He was Variam’s older brother and when things started happening at my school Harbir came to help. He was like that.” Anne’s smile faded. “But he was killed. I didn’t know how to use my magic back then, but . . . I wish I’d been able to do something.

  “After that Sagash kidnapped me and took me away. I was in his castle for a long time. Sagash was a Dark mage but he didn’t have any other apprentices. He wanted me to become his Chosen, and when I said no he tried to make me.” Anne was quiet for a moment. “It was . . . bad. Really bad. Back then I didn’t know Vari well—we only met because he was Harbir’s brother. He could have stayed at home and been safe. But he didn’t. He came looking for me and he tracked Sagash down and in the end we were able to get away. I think he did it because of Harbir. One of the last things Harbir had been trying to do before he disappeared was protect me and . . . I guess Vari feels he kind of inherited the responsibility. He takes that kind of thing really seriously. He’d never let me get hurt, even if he doesn’t like me all that much.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “He doesn’t hate me or anythin
g,” Anne said. “But I think it gets on his nerves the way I’m so quiet about things. He likes it when people stand up to him.”

  “So that’s why he finally started listening to me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing.”

  Anne gave me a puzzled look, then shook it off. “Did everyone make it out from Vitus’s sanctum okay? The Keepers wouldn’t tell me.”

  “Crystal got away clean,” I said. “Lyle too—he got out with Crystal and she left him behind. He wasn’t hurt or anything, but last I heard he was in hot water. He was supposed to be keeping the apprentices in the White Stone safe and instead he ended up arranging them an all-expenses paid trip to Death Mansion.”

  “Are the Council going to blame him?”

  I shook my head. “He didn’t actually know what was going on, so no. Still, I don’t think he’s going to be getting any promotions for a while.” It was an odd feeling. I’ve had a grudge against Lyle for the longest time, but now that things had gone wrong for him I found to my surprise that I wasn’t especially happy about it. If he’d gotten in trouble because he’d finally taken advantage of the wrong person I probably would have laughed, but the way it looked to me was that it had been Crystal who’d taken advantage of him. Somehow that just made it sad.

  “What about Onyx?” Anne asked. “Do you think he’s . . . ?”

  “I wish,” I said with a snort. “I’ve seen him survive worse. I’m just glad he hasn’t come back for a rematch yet.”

  We sat listening to the sounds of the city. The cold air bit at me and I knew I ought to go in soon, but I was reluctant to break the moment. “It feels strange,” Anne said at last.

  “What does?”

  “Being away from Jagadev,” Anne said. At some point she’d stopped tacking Lord onto his name. “It’s the first time Vari and I have been all on our own.”

  “You’re wondering what you should do,” I said.

  Anne nodded. “Well, for the short term you can both stay here,” I said. “I might not have as much status as some, but as long as you’re living under this roof you’ll have some protection at least.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t get too grateful. I’ll probably want you to help out around the place.”

  I saw Anne try to hide a smile. “But . . .” I said. “In the long run you and Variam are going to have to decide what to do next.”

  Anne seemed about to say something, hesitated.

  “I can’t take the two of you on as apprentices,” I said. “I couldn’t take on someone else and teach Luna as well. But even if I didn’t have Luna, I still couldn’t teach you properly. I only understand the basics of elemental and living magic, and you and Variam are way beyond anything I could show you. Both of you have more power right now than I’ll ever have. You need a teacher who can use the same type of magic that you can.”

  A chill wind gusted over us, ruffling our hair. “Or you could try and make a go of it as independents,” I said. “But that’s got its own problems. You’re going to be seen as rogues or runaways or both. If you can get enough support and pass the journeyman tests, then the Light Council will have to recognise you as adult mages. But that’s not easy.”

  Anne sighed. “None of it is, is it?” She straightened. “Well, we’ve made it this far. We’ll make do.”

  “You will,” I said. “And you won’t be on your own this time.”

  Anne looked at me and smiled. I got up and held my hand out to her. “Come on. Let’s go help Variam unpack.”

  We went down out of the cold and towards the warmth and voices below.

  Ace Books by Benedict Jacka

  FATED

  CURSED

  TAKEN