Until you see the real thing. And then all of a sudden, you can’t understand how you could ever have been taken in by the fake one.
Vihaela—and I knew this was the real Vihaela, knew it instantly and without needing to check—was tall and dark-skinned, though so perfectly proportioned that the only reason I even registered her height was that standing next to Cerulean, she was taller than him. She wore layered clothes of brown and black and red, with white gloves that stood out in the darkness, and moved with the graceful indifference of a bird of prey. Beautiful, but the kind of beauty that intimidates rather than attracts. Looking at her, I understood why Leo had been so afraid of her. She scared me, and I hadn’t even seen her do anything.
This was way more than I’d bargained for. I’d been planning to lose Cerulean and Haken in the darkness, then either call for backup or gate out. All I could do now was hold very still.
“Hello, Haken,” Vihaela said. Her voice was musical, quite pleasant to the ear. “Where’s Verus?”
“Gone,” Cerulean said.
Vihaela gave Haken an inquiring look. “He ran,” Haken said reluctantly.
Vihaela turned to Cerulean. “Fetch the sniffers. Take the outer guard. Find him.”
Cerulean nodded and slipped away into the darkness. Beyond the ring of Haken’s light, I could hear him giving orders. The men outside the circle drew back; I saw Haken’s eyes flick in their direction and he seemed to relax a tiny bit, though he was still on guard. “This would have gone a lot faster,” Haken said, “if you’d just come to talk.”
“Oh, did you like my little surprise?” Vihaela smiled. “Short notice, but I did my best.”
“Hilarious,” Haken said sourly. “You couldn’t have just showed up?”
Vihaela raised an eyebrow. “You really thought I was going to surrender to your little task force? I would have thought you and Levistus would be grateful. You wanted a way to wrap this up quietly.”
“Having your constructs come in shooting was not ‘quietly.’”
Vihaela waved a hand. “Relatively quietly. I think you need more realistic standards.”
Haken took a breath, obviously controlling his temper. “I don’t have much time here. Can we get down to business?”
“Oh, business?” Vihaela clasped her hands and smiled. “That sounds good. So what does the great Levistus have to say?”
“I think you know. By now half the Light mages in Britain have heard that those data focuses can be read. More importantly, they know that you lost one. Every mage who’s used your ‘services’ is scrambling around trying to put a lid on things.”
“Sounds very inconvenient for you.”
“Look,” Haken said. “I’m a Keeper. I don’t know what you guys have got going on here. What I do know is that because of that focus getting out, a lot of Light mages have got a problem. And because Levistus depends on those mages for support, that means he’s got a problem. And since he’s got a problem, he makes it my problem, which means it becomes your problem. So I would appreciate it very fucking much if you could stop doing things like trying to assassinate a Keeper auxiliary in the middle of an operation.”
“Hmm. You’re right.” Vihaela tapped a finger to her lips, studying Haken thoughtfully. “You really don’t know much about what’s going on here.”
I heard Haken grit his teeth.
“Getting rid of Verus wasn’t my idea, by the way,” Vihaela said. “That came down from Marannis. He thought that with Verus gone, we could pick up his apprentice and find out what he did with that data focus. Or maybe it was his idea of mending fences with Levistus.” She shrugged. “Oh well, who cares?”
“Killing a mage on Keeper business isn’t going to mend fences with anyone. You’re smart, you’ll call off the hunt on Verus now.”
Vihaela sighed. “No, that was what Marannis wanted. Try to keep up.”
“I’m not here to—”
“No. You were here to deliver Verus. One simple thing.” Vihaela paused. “Do you have any idea how much work it’s been to get you Keepers moving? I’d thought you’d at least make your raid here. Instead you send your whole assault force after the smallest house we have. I suppose I should have expected it, really. Losing a mage seems to be the only thing that motivates you.”
All of a sudden I knew what Vihaela was going to do. Shit. Who’s she really working for? I very briefly thought about doing something, then abandoned the idea and started looking for ways out.
Haken hadn’t caught up yet. “Look, the way Levistus sees it, we can still keep a lid on this. The others think you’re dead. Okay, we can work with that. That’ll stall the investigation long enough to let us work out something—”
“Sorry, Haken,” Vihaela said. “I’m afraid you and Levistus are a couple of steps behind.”
Haken frowned. “What are you—?”
Light flashed from the small of Haken’s back, magic surging at close range. Haken jerked, his spine arching, then collapsed to the ground.
“Fire mages.” Vihaela shook her head, looking down at Haken. “So easy to misdirect.”
Cerulean materialised out of thin air where Haken had been standing, slipping something back into his pocket. His invisibility was flawless: even with my magesight, I hadn’t picked up any trace of his presence. Two figures came marching out of the darkness; they were the same humanoid constructs that had accompanied Vihaela’s decoy in Bank. “Pick that up,” Vihaela said, pointing down at Haken. The constructs moved to obey and she turned to Cerulean. “Where’s Verus?”
“He couldn’t have gated,” Cerulean said. The constructs lifted Haken; focusing on him I could tell that he was unconscious but still alive. “Wards didn’t trigger. Shroud?”
Vihaela frowned. “This isn’t a good time for distractions.”
“I’ve told the team that Haken’s MIA and Verus is the suspect,” Cerulean said. “Should keep them busy a while.”
Well, shit. That was going to make my life a lot harder.
“Find him anyway,” Vihaela said. She glanced around at the gardens. “You know, I might actually miss this place.” Her voice was thoughtful, and she kept gazing around for a few seconds more before turning to walk away. The constructs followed, carrying Haken between them.
I watched the group disappear into the darkness. As soon as they were gone, I backed slowly away, then turned and started hurrying through the trees. I could still hear voices in the distance, and the flicker of lights. I wasn’t worried about any of the men finding me the regular way, but I was pretty sure a slaver group would have more than just torches.
I ducked into another bush and crouched down in the darkness. I pulled out my phone and started to activate it, then frowned. No signal. I flicked through the futures, trying different numbers—all nothing. They must have a jammer of some kind. I looked into the futures in which I used a gate stone. A minute or two to get the spell working, and . . . oh, goddamn it. Cerulean hadn’t been bluffing about the wards either.
I’d suspected that Haken was going to pull something like this—that was why I’d brought the fire-hunger stone and the mist cloak. My plan had been to wait for him to tip his hand, learn what I could, then bug out. Unfortunately, I’d been counting on either being able to gate away, or get a message to Luna and the others.
A sound rose up from the direction of the house, making my head snap around. It was a low-pitched, throaty arrh-arrh-arrh, something like what you’d get if you crossed a dog and a giant crow. I remembered what Vihaela had said about “sniffers” and a nasty feeling formed in my stomach. My mist cloak’s great against magic, but it doesn’t do anything against tracking by scent.
Plan C. I rummaged around in my bag for the serrated blue disc of my communication focus. I channelled into it, strained myself to give it a bit of extra energy, and waited.
A second later I heard
Caldera’s voice from the disc. “Who is this?”
Damn, that’s loud. I wished this one had a volume control like the later models. “Keep your voice down.”
“Verus?” Caldera sounded suspicious. “Is that you?”
I could hear voices behind me to my left. They were getting closer. “It’s me.”
“How do you have a synchronous focus?”
“Not the time. I could really use some help here.”
“Yeah, no kidding. What’s going on with Haken?”
“He’s in deep shit and I’m not doing so well either. Any chance of some backup?”
“Orders are for you to come in—”
“I know. You got a call within the last half hour, telling you that Haken’s MIA and that I’m to be arrested under suspicion of being involved. Right?”
“So are you going to do it?”
“Can’t.”
“If you don’t—”
“I’m not saying I won’t, I’m saying I can’t. I’m at White Rose’s base and they’ve got sink wards. Listen, I didn’t do anything to Haken. He was dealing under the table with Vihaela and got burned. Cerulean’s the mole, not me. White Rose has got Haken, and they’re after me too. I need you to get the others and gate to the beacon from my communicator.”
“That’s not an option.”
A sound went up into the night, the same throaty arrh-arrh-arrh. It was closer this time. I looked over in the direction, then huddled down, biting off my words. “Listen. This is me calling for help. I need you guys here.”
There was a silence. It could only have been a few seconds, but it felt like more. “I can’t,” Caldera said. “Orders are to bring you in. I can’t gate to your position on your say-so.”
“Then call Vari or Landis or someone who can!”
“I can’t do that either. You’re asking me to disobey a direct order.”
“Fuck the orders! If you wait for clearance, then Haken and I are going to be dead by the time you get it!”
I heard a shout from close by. I snatched a look around the tree and swore quietly. Two shapes were moving down the bank, torch beams searching in my direction. They’d heard me talking and I’d been too distracted by the conversation with Caldera to see them coming. “Verus?” Caldera said. “What’s going on?”
Caldera hadn’t kept her voice down. The torches zeroed in and I ducked back behind the tree before they could blind me. I heard a man’s voice, and undergrowth cracked as heavy footsteps headed in my direction.
I took a deep breath and bent my head over the communicator. “Caldera. I know I’ve done things to piss you off and there have been times I haven’t told you everything. But I’ve never actually lied to you and I’m telling you the truth now. I can’t handle this on my own. Please. I don’t know how much longer—”
Danger. I dropped the focus and turned just as the first man came around the side of the tree. His flashlight was up: he’d been expecting me to flee, and the ferocity of my attack caught him off guard. I hit him in the stomach twice, then as he doubled over, kneed him in the face hard enough to feel something break. I turned on the second man to see him backpedalling and I closed in on him, swift and wolflike. He struck out with what looked like a club; from the futures in which it hit me I knew it would discharge a stunning shock. I let it slide past and caught the arm. The torches were dazzling but narrow-beamed, and the other man couldn’t see what I was doing. I closed my eyes as he shone the light into my face, ducked his attempt to club me over the head, then threw him. The fall knocked the torch and shock stick out of his hands, and while he scrabbled for them I had time to draw my stun focus; he’d just made it to his knees when I discharged the focus into his side. He went down and didn’t get up.
Shouts and lights moved through the trees. My fight hadn’t gone unnoticed, and others were closing in. I ran back to the tree where I’d been hiding, scooped up my pack, and scanned the futures: there were people coming from behind and to the left, and going right would bring me up against the perimeter fence. Forward. I wove through the woods, relying on my second sight to keep me from tripping and falling on my face. A couple of men were at risk of cutting me off: I reached down without breaking stride, scooped up a rock in the darkness, and threw it blind. A few seconds later there was a distant tak as it hit a tree. The futures of the men to my left shifted as they homed in on the noise, leaving me a clear path.
I came out of the trees and started up a grassy slope, wind blowing in my hair, the overcast sky above. To my left, I could see the bright lights of the White Rose estate. These grounds felt like the size of a national park, but it meant that I had more space to hide, and that was to my advantage, not theirs. For a second I thought that I’d lost them.
Then I heard the arrh-arrh-arrh sound from behind me, followed by the sound of crashing vegetation. It was close—too close. I ducked behind a bush, blending into the shadows and looking back down the slope.
A shape moved in the darkness under the trees. It looked something like a huge dog, but the proportions were wrong, the shoulders too large. Its lines were solid light in the futures: a construct. There were men with it, though, catching up fast, and they weren’t constructs. As I watched, the shape came out onto the slope and started trotting uphill, head low to the ground, heading straight towards my hiding place.
I calculated quickly. The thing was faster than me; if I kept going, it’d run me down. Maybe I could take it out and lose the men . . . but the light beams of more torches were appearing below . . .
No other choice. Silently, I drew out my dispel focus. I’d only have one shot at this.
The construct was still closing in. It had slowed down, and as it reached a distance of thirty feet from the bush it stopped. Shit. My dispel focus was a touch-range weapon. I held still.
The men were climbing the hillside, closing in on my position. The wolf construct was holding still. Three of them caught up, then five, then six. More were coming. “. . . in there?” I heard one say.
“Can’t see shit . . .”
“. . . a mage, right?”
They began to spread out, circling. They were wary, but that wouldn’t last long. My only cover was the leafy bush, and as soon as they circled far enough around they’d have a clear line of sight to me. I looked into the future, and—
—there. I pulled off my cloak, stuffing it into my pack. One of the men saw the movement and shouted something, the beam of his torch darting out towards me.
Pale brown light split the air, forming a vertical disc, lighting up the startled faces of the men. The light solidified, forming a gate, and Caldera stepped through, coming down onto the grass. She dismissed the gate behind her, called up an orb of light in her hand, and looked at the men surrounding her. “Hey there,” she said. “Seen a diviner around?”
I grinned and took a step forward. Caldera turned instantly, shining the light on me. “Caldera, I have never been so happy to see you in all my life.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Caldera jerked her thumb at the ring of men surrounding us. “Who are the goons?”
“That’s him!” one of the men shouted. “Get him!” He charged Caldera from behind, and as she began to turn he stabbed his shock stick into her side. Blue-white light crackled as the energy discharged into her body.
Caldera finished turning and stared at the man. He looked down at the stick, then up at Caldera. Caldera picked him up, lifted him over her head, and threw him. Not a martial arts throw, more the kind of thing a football player does with a throw-in. She got the same sort of distance too. The man went flying away into the darkness with a long trailing yell that was cut off a couple of seconds later by a thud.
The other men stared down at the flight path their companion had just described, then turned back to Caldera. “Anyone else?” Caldera asked.
There was a rustlin
g, shuffling sound as all of them took a step back. The construct held its ground, staring at us, until one of the men called something and it retreated as well.
Caldera turned and walked to me. “You were supposed to be intel support,” she said. “How do you keep getting into this shit?”
I sighed. “Would you believe I was just following orders?”
More people were gathering downslope. Another one of the wolf constructs had emerged from the trees, and I could hear shouts and see arms pointing in our direction. Caldera still had her light spell active, clearly illuminating us in the darkness. “I hate to be a downer,” I said, “but I think they’re coming back for another round.”
“That’s okay,” Caldera said. “I brought some friends.” She took out her communicator and spoke into it. “Beacon’s lit. Gate when ready.”
“Got it,” a familiar voice said from the disc. “Sixty seconds.”
The men started advancing again up the hill. They moved slowly at first, but we were illuminated by Caldera’s light and they could see that they outnumbered us ten to one. There were three of the wolf constructs now, padding heavily through the grass, black eyes locked onto us. The men still didn’t have guns out, only the shock sticks, but there were an awful lot of them. They closed to sixty feet, then forty. Someone shouted, “Go!” and the wolf constructs arrowed in, the men following behind. I took a step back, bracing myself . . .
And then a gate opened beside us, this one flame-red, lighting up the night. Figures came stepping through: Landis, wreathed in flame; Variam, his face bright and eager; Luna, her wand in her right hand, whip coiled and ready. The men hesitated, shouting. The constructs didn’t. The first construct came face to face with Landis and was just starting its leap when a fireblast exploded it in midair, the wave of heat so intense that I felt it twenty feet away. Red-hot pieces of construct went rolling across the hillside, sending smoke rising up from the grass. “Verus!” Landis said cheerfully. Two more men had been behind the construct and were wavering; he gestured and a spell detonated with an explosive whump, sending them both sprawling. They scrambled to their feet and ran. “Saved a few more for us this time, excellent work. Any friendlies?”
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