Alex Verus 5: Hidden

by Benedict Jacka

  Blink.

  I couldn’t blame the blink fox. If my only defence was teleportation, I wouldn’t want to go into an area that blocked that either. “I’m going up,” I said. “You should find a place with a view of the exits and sit and watch for a while. I haven’t forgotten my promise. If you see me come out, link up with me and we’ll try to make it out from there. If you don’t . . .” I trailed off, wondering how to finish that sentence.

  The fox tilted its head, watching me, then there was a flicker of space magic and it was gone, leaving me alone in the room. I started climbing.

  | | | | | | | | |

  The ladder came up into another storeroom. The door wasn’t locked this time, and I came out onto a ground-floor corridor.

  I could tell the instant I stepped into the keep. The walls here were smooth instead of rough, dim sunlight filtering through the narrow windows onto black stone instead of the yellowish bricks of the rest of the castle. The air was cold, and I found myself shivering. I could feel magical auras overlapping around me, but I didn’t stop to analyse; it was only a matter of time until Crystal or the other apprentices picked me up. Speed was my best defence now, and I moved quickly down the corridor, scanning ahead. At the end was a staircase, leading up and down. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I could hear a very faint murmur of sound from below. The sub-basement Ji-yeong had told me about; Anne would be down there. I went up.

  Sagash’s laboratories on the first floor were very easy to find, marked by a cluster of wards and protective spells. The door was solid metal and wouldn’t have looked out of place on a missile silo. I studied the adjacent panel on the wall, then touched a finger to a small recessed sphere and channelled a thread of magic through it. I stood back and waited.

  Twenty seconds passed, forty. I forced myself to stand still and look relaxed. I knew I was being watched but didn’t let myself glance up. At last there was a click from the panel.

  “Mage Sagash?” I said. “My name’s Verus. If it’s convenient, I’d like to have a word.”

  The silence dragged out: fifteen seconds, thirty. Then there was a muffled thump and a grinding sound, and the metal door swung open, moving very slowly before stopping with a clang. I stepped inside.

  The room within was shaped like a wide cylinder. The door I’d entered by led onto a balcony that ran around the upper level, looking down onto a bare circular floor on which a ring was marked. At the opposite side of the balcony, another open door led deeper into the keep. A set of metal stairs curled down from the balcony to the lower level.

  It didn’t look like a laboratory. It looked like an arena. Why Sagash kept an arena between his personal lab and the rest of the keep was a question I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to.

  Sagash himself was standing in the open doorway leading through to the labs, and the past few days hadn’t improved his appearance. He was dressed in black, the clothes dusty and ragged, as though they’d been worn for a very long time, and he stood very straight with his hands clasped behind his back as he watched me. He didn’t speak.

  “Sagash,” I said. “Thank you for seeing me. I understand you’re quite busy.”

  “Explain why you are here,” Sagash rasped. His voice was just as unnerving as I remembered.

  “Well, I did try to set up an appointment, but you’re a hard person to reach.”

  “Do not play games. If your master has sent you here for some purpose, reveal it.”

  Ding. I didn’t let anything show on my face, but I felt a little surge of excitement. Maybe I could pull this off after all.

  Light mages think all Dark mages live in a state of violent anarchy. They’re half right . . . but only half. Dark mages might compete with each other and they might prey on each other, but they’re not completely stupid. If they always fought on sight they’d have wiped themselves out long ago, and what’s developed over the years to regulate that is a kind of code of conduct. The catch is, the code only applies if they consider you a Dark mage in the first place. When I’m with the Light mages, the fact that I’m Richard’s ex-apprentice is an albatross around my neck, but when I’m with Dark mages then in a strange way it makes me part of the club. Dark apprentices like Darren and Ji-yeong fight first and talk later. Mages like Sagash and Morden talk first, then decide whether to fight. Dark negotiations are a razor’s edge, civility side by side with the potential for sudden violence. Light mages have trouble with that, even when they know intellectually how it’s supposed to work—there’s just something about it that they’re never quite comfortable with. Maybe you have to grow up with it.

  The funny thing was that really, all the work I’d done to get the blink fox’s help and sneak in had just been to make a first impression. My plan centred on talking to Sagash—in theory I could have just walked up to the front gate and rung the doorbell. Of course, that would have meant getting past his apprentices and Crystal. Showing up like this was a statement: I was telling him that his shadows hadn’t been able to keep me out, and his apprentices hadn’t either. It was a provocation, but still less dangerous than to let him feel as though I was weak enough to be brushed aside. I needed to treat with him as an equal.

  “So I don’t know if you remember, but we’ve met before,” I said. “It was—”

  “In the Tiger’s Palace.” Sagash didn’t bring up the changes I’d made to my appearance. Fashion clearly wasn’t one of his interests.

  “Oh good. So I don’t need to go over that again.”

  “You approached me for information on Anne Walker,” Sagash rasped. “If you have disturbed me to repeat the same question I will be unhappy.”

  “Actually, what I had in mind was the opposite. I have some information I’d like to trade.”

  “Explain.”

  “Basically it has to do with the project you’re working on. There’s a plot against you that I’ve found out about. In exchange, I’d like you to help me out with what I asked you about before.”

  “What plot?” Sagash rasped. He didn’t move, but I knew I had his attention. When you’re dealing with paranoids, a conspiracy is an easy sell.

  “So have we got a deal?”

  “You are trying my patience.”

  “I’m not asking you to do anything that’ll require any expenditure of time or resources on your part,” I said. “Or that’ll require siding with any factions. You won’t even have to leave this shadow realm. All I’m asking is that after you’ve heard what I have to say, if you agree that what I’ve just said is fair, you’ll help me out.”

  Sagash stared at me. I waited, hiding my tension. I didn’t know how much time I had, and with my conversation with Sagash occupying all the visible futures I couldn’t look far enough ahead to see. I listened for the sound of movement in the corridor behind.

  “Your terms are provisionally accepted,” Sagash rasped. “Convince me I should keep them.”

  First step done. “Well, then,” I said. “I’m afraid you’ve been led down a dead end. The research you’ve been working on isn’t going to be any use for extending your life span, or anything else for that matter.”

  “Your reasons for this conclusion?”

  “Let me take a guess,” I said. “You’ve been extra busy lately. In fact, I’d guess that the only spare time you’ve taken has been to visit that party. I’m also going to guess that the reason the research has been taking so much time has been because of Crystal. Either some extra details she just recently told you about, or something she suggested you do.”

  “You are well informed,” Sagash rasped. “Please explain how you came to know of Crystal’s presence.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t looking for her. Though the Council are . . . which I assume is why you haven’t been advertising it. I’m guessing the idea is that no one’s supposed to draw attention to her being here? Having a bunch of Council Keepers banging on the front door woul
d be a bit of a disruption.”

  “It appears disruption is inevitable. Once again, explain how you came to know of this.”

  Sagash hadn’t closed the door behind me, and from down the corridor I was starting to hear snatches of voices. Both Crystal and Darren could sense me through walls; they’d probably started hunting me down within seconds of my entering the keep. Let’s see if I can time this just right. “Because someone in your castle decided to kidnap Anne Walker and bring her here, all while keeping it a secret from you so that you’d be left to deal with the consequences afterwards.”

  “Who?”

  I paused a few seconds, listening to the approaching footsteps. Three . . . two . . . “Her,” I said, and pointed towards the doorway just as Crystal appeared.

  I had to give Crystal credit. The shielding around Sagash’s lab had hidden me from her mindsight, but as she saw me she didn’t even blink. Darren and Sam piled through after her and I stayed calm, watching with folded arms. Darren and Sam saw me and tensed, Darren’s expression darkening as black light gathered at his hands.

  “Hold.” Sagash’s rasping voice cut across the room.

  Darren’s spell winked out instantly. Sam looked cautiously between Sagash and me. “Master,” he said. “Is there a problem?”

  “An excellent question,” Sagash rasped. “I was under the impression that you were keeping my castle free of outsiders.”

  “Sorry, they’ve been busy,” I chipped in. “They’re the reason Anne was in this castle in the first place, and they’ve been spending the last few days trying to catch her without you noticing.”

  An identical pair of oh shit expressions crossed Darren’s and Sam’s faces. They’d obviously been expecting me to blast my way into the keep and attack—they hadn’t been expecting me to go to their master, and it was clear which they thought was worse. I saw a new set of futures branch off, Crystal backing off towards the door, and I opened my mouth to call her out.

  Sagash beat me to it. Two shadows appeared in the doorway, blocking the exit, and the futures of Crystal retreating winked out. “Mage Crystal?” Sagash rasped. He hadn’t given any order that I’d seen, but the two shadows had their eyes fixed on the mind mage. “If you’re not too busy, perhaps you could clarify.”

  Crystal paused, and for a fraction of a second I saw a branching spread of futures of sudden violence, Crystal trying to fight her way out through the shadows, Darren and Sam switching suddenly from attacking to helping—

  —and gone. “That mage’s name is Verus,” Crystal stated. “One of the agents the Council sent after me to terminate my research. He’s a diviner, and highly dangerous. We should kill him immediately.”

  “That would keep me from telling Sagash what you’ve been up to, yes,” I said dryly. “Assuming you could pull it off. Did you interrupt your ritual on Anne to run up here, or did I make it before you had the chance to start?”

  “He’s lying,” Crystal said calmly to Sagash. She didn’t look at me or acknowledge my presence. “I’ve dealt with this man before and he is a highly accomplished manipulator. Trust him or let him live and you’ll be destroyed as Vitus was.”

  “I hope you haven’t been using her as your social secretary,” I told Sagash.

  “You need to—”

  “Enough,” Sagash rasped.

  Crystal and I fell silent. Darren and Sam were standing between us, hesitating. They might have taken the lead in the fight at the windmill, but here they were both very obviously out of their league.

  Sagash pointed a skeletal finger at me. “You claimed my apprentices are the reason this girl is currently within my castle.”

  “Darren and Sam kidnapped Anne Walker four days ago,” I said. “Though really, they were just doing what they were told. The one who wanted Anne was Crystal, and she used mind manipulation to manoeuvre Darren and Sam into doing what she told them and thinking it was their own idea.”

  Sagash looked at Darren and Sam.

  Darren hesitated. “Uh . . .”

  “That’s not exactly . . .” Sam began.

  Huh, I thought. Guess that last part was actually true. I didn’t have any proof that Crystal had used her magic to manipulate the two of them—I’d just thrown it in because there was absolutely no way Crystal could prove she hadn’t done it.

  “Perhaps I should make my questions simpler,” Sagash rasped. “Is Anne Walker currently within my castle? Yes or no will suffice.”

  “Uh . . .” Sam said. “Yes.”

  “Where?” Sagash said.

  “In the holding cells.”

  “Why?”

  “Uh . . . do you mean why did we put her there, or why she’s in the castle . . . ?”

  Sagash looked at him. “Right,” Sam said hurriedly. “So, well, Crystal said that you needed this girl for your project, so we had to bring her in alive. Then, uh, we had to catch her again. Which we did.” Sam looked from Crystal to Sagash. “Right?”

  Sagash stared back at Sam for a moment, then turned to Crystal.

  “I’ve been concerned for some time about our progress,” Crystal said, just as though Sagash had asked the question. She sounded much calmer than she had any right to be. “The replication issues have been making me suspect that we need a particular type of live subject. The girl in question has some traits which make her particularly suitable. Since it wasn’t practical for me to go myself, I asked Darren and Sam for their help.”

  Sagash watched Crystal expressionlessly. “And you saw fit not to tell me this because . . . ?”

  “I wasn’t sure whether this girl would give us the information we needed, and I wanted to have solid results before I presented anything to you. With hindsight, that was a mistake. I should have kept you informed about the details. However, from what I just saw during my observations before I was called away, it’s paid off. I’m confident that with her as a subject we should be able to extract everything we need.”

  “She’s . . .” I began, then tailed off. What was I going to say?

  “Verus doesn’t have anything to offer,” Crystal said when I didn’t continue. She didn’t look at me. “He wants the girl and knows he doesn’t have the power to take her himself, so he’s trying to talk you into handing her over. The fastest way to resolve this is to remove him.”

  It felt as though there was something I should be saying, but I couldn’t think what it might be. “Verus?” Sagash asked.

  Sagash was looking at me, and Darren and Sam too. There wasn’t any immediate threat of violence—yet—but I was very much aware that my life was on the line here. Still I hesitated; trying to think of an answer felt like swimming through fog. I’d had some argument I wanted to make, just a second ago.

  “Your silence is not compelling,” Sagash rasped.

  I still couldn’t think of what to say. I’d felt like this before, but the memory was hard to place. It was when . . .

  And suddenly something clicked. I spoke with an effort, not letting myself think about it. “Be easier to answer if Crystal would stop screwing with my head.”

  The fog vanished from my thoughts with a snap, and all of a sudden I could think clearly again. Sagash had turned to look at Crystal, and I knew he was studying her with his magesight. Mind magic is hard to detect but not impossible, especially if you’re looking for it, and as long as he was focused on her, Crystal couldn’t risk anything. “That’s better,” I said, keeping my voice calm as my thoughts raced. I needed to pull the subject away from me, attack where Crystal was vulnerable. “So, I’d like to make two points. First, while there’s nothing preventing you from attacking me, I’m not actually your immediate problem. The Council are going to be coming, and while it’s Crystal they really want, they’d be happy to make space for accomplices. Secondly, you might notice that Crystal hasn’t given any kind of plausible answer for why she’s been keeping all th
is secret from you. If she’d been planning to share, she would have brought you in from the start. Hiding it from you took major effort on her part, and she wouldn’t have done that just because of the chance that it wouldn’t work. She did it because she knew you wouldn’t have agreed to the plan—and you definitely wouldn’t have agreed to her making use of what was yours.” I nodded towards Darren and Sam.

  “He’s stalling for time—” Crystal began.

  “Enough,” Sagash rasped. Crystal fell silent immediately, and I followed her lead. Darren and Sam kept their mouths shut too, probably grateful that Sagash’s attention wasn’t on them. Sagash stared between the two of us, tapping one skeletal finger. The seconds stretched out; I held still, on edge. It was all going to come down to which way Sagash decided to jump, and the futures were blurred and flickering. He hadn’t made his choice yet. If he decided to side with Crystal . . .

  The futures wavered and settled into a branch. “You present me with a dilemma,” Sagash stated. “You, Verus, have violated my territory and drawn the attention of the Council.” He didn’t ask what had happened to Ji-yeong. A caring master, Sagash was not. “Your motives are quite transparent, and as Crystal points out, your bargaining position is poor. You want the girl, yet have little to offer in exchange.”

  “Apart from the information I’ve just given you.”

  “A valid point,” Sagash rasped. “It is clear I have allowed myself to become overly distracted. Had I been supervising my domain more closely, this would have been arrested earlier.” His gaze came to rest on Crystal. “As you may recall, our original agreement stipulated that you would avoid such actions as this. The fact that you have made use of my apprentices for your personal reasons—and drawn the attention of the Council as a result—does not please me.”

  “We don’t yet have any evidence that the Council knows,” Crystal replied. “If they knew for sure then they wouldn’t have sent Verus; they’d have sent a squad of Keepers. The fact that he’s here on his own means that they don’t know yet. The only way they’ll find out is if he reports back.”