Veiled

by Benedict Jacka

  Slate stood up, guiding the girl gently with one arm. As he looked up he saw me and the scowl returned to his face. I looked away, careful not to smile.

  Movement in the futures caught my attention. A Keeper was headed towards me; it was Slate’s partner, Trask. “Verus,” Trask said as he walked up.

  “Hey.”

  “Wards are down,” Trask said. “Going to need you to come back to HQ.”

  “Oh, right,” I said with a sigh. “That.” I was still wanted for questioning. “So am I under arrest?”

  “Not technically.”

  “Seems to be a habit.” I climbed wearily to my feet. “Come on then.”

  “Alex?” Luna asked.

  “I’ll be okay. Make sure he gets to Anne.”

  “Hey,” Variam said. “I can take care of myself.”

  “I will,” Luna said.

  I walked with Trask towards the gate point, leaving Luna and Variam alone on the hill. Getting out of here was probably a good idea anyway. Right now everyone was running around trying to get things back in order; once they managed that, they were going to start looking for people to blame. There was going to be a lot of fallout from what had happened here tonight, and I was pretty sure I’d just made some extra enemies.

  Then I glanced over at the teenagers and children in the meadow. Slate was still with them, along with a couple of other Keepers. As I watched, a gate opened, and the White Rose slaves started to file through. One boy who reminded me a little of Leo had stopped and was staring back at the building behind him. As we passed by, he turned and stepped through the gate, disappearing from the meadow and leaving White Rose behind.

  I turned back to see that Trask was watching me. “Worth it?” he asked.

  I considered it briefly, then nodded. “Yeah.”

  The two of us walked away.

  | | | | | | | | |

  The next few days were busy.

  I spent the first forty-eight hours in meetings and interviews. All the different Council factions wanted to hear the details of how my trip with Haken had gone, and all of them also wanted to make sure I reported said details in such a way that would work to their advantage. Before the first day was out, I’d been threatened with death, imprisonment, exile, and demotion (not necessarily in that order), and had been instructed by five separate people to follow four different and contradictory stories. There was no possible way that I could make everyone happy, and I didn’t even try. I just stalled, and waited.

  I didn’t have to wait long. As the days went by, the mages in the Council had their attention pulled away from me to the political crisis unfolding around them. Now that White Rose’s organisation was in ruins, all the dirty laundry was coming out. The really secure files had been kept on keyed data focuses or in the heads of Vihaela and Marannis, but as with any security system, the weakest part is the human element, and with the number of prisoners the Keepers had taken, they had a lot of witnesses to interrogate. Some Council members tried to make covert attempts to shut the interrogations down. It didn’t work. Within a week, everyone knew who White Rose had been in bed with, with more juicy details coming out every day.

  Oddly enough, being in Keeper custody ended up working out in my favour. No one was really interested in prosecuting me anymore, and being held in Keeper HQ ended up isolating me from the worst of the political storm. The only drawback was that it was hard for me to find out what was going on, but in that regard I got help from an unexpected source. Caldera was still off on medical leave, but Coatl started showing up to bring me meals and escort me around—for some reason he’d taken a liking to me, and through him I learnt what was happening in the Council as the political casualties started to mount up.

  Nirvathis was one of the first to go. I never did learn exactly how he’d been associated with White Rose and what his apprentice had been doing meeting with Chamois that night, but it didn’t matter; he was never going to have a shot at the Council again. One member of the Junior Council and one member of the Senior Council both resigned four days after the battle, within an hour of each other, for “health reasons.” Along with the one Nirvathis had been gunning for, that left a total of three Council seats up for grabs. It was announced that the new Junior Council seats would be assigned first, and a political free-for-all began.

  On the Dark side of the fence, Marannis found himself out in the cold. Vihaela had disappeared, the Council factions who’d lost influence were hungry for blood, and Marannis was the obvious scapegoat. He probably could have escaped if he’d been willing to cut his losses, but he hesitated too long. The Order of the Star raided his mansion while he was still trying to piece the White Rose organisation back together. Marannis was killed “resisting arrest.” Apparently someone on the Council had decided that they were tired of cleaning up White Rose’s mess.

  With Marannis and Vihaela gone and their main base destroyed, White Rose disintegrated. The houses operated by White Rose were closed down and the slaves and enforcers taken into custody, and the last remaining mages involved in running the organisation slipped away.

  And by the time I was finally released from Keeper HQ, everyone was far too busy with all the political chaos to pay any attention to me.

  | | | | | | | | |

  “I still don’t understand what Vihaela was doing,” Luna said.

  It was a week after the battle and I was back in the War Rooms, sitting in the same alcove in the Belfry where Haken and I had waited to be summoned. Murmurs of conversation echoed across the polished floor, mages and their assistants speaking quietly as they walked. I’d been ordered to attend another hearing—a less important one this time—and I’d taken advantage of my newly acquired status as a Keeper employee to bring Luna along.

  “You remember what we were saying about the three factions?” I said. There was no one very close to us, but I kept my voice down all the same. “White Rose, Levistus’s group on the Council, and whoever hired Chamois. Vihaela wasn’t on White Rose’s side.”

  “But she was working for White Rose.”

  “Yeah, well, once the Keepers started digging, they found some new information,” I said. “Turns out Vihaela was running the organisation a bit too well. Well enough that Marannis wasn’t necessary anymore.”

  “So Marannis thought she was going to betray him?”

  “He might have been right at that. I had a look at Vihaela’s history. Her bosses tend not to live very long.”

  Luna thought about it for a second. “So he decided to get rid of her, but she found out and beat him to the punch.”

  “That’s what the Keepers think,” I said. “We know that she sent Leo to deliver the focus. Well, my guess is that she also leaked the time and place of the meeting. That was how Chamois knew where to find them.”

  “Why?”

  “She was turning the Council against White Rose,” I said. Now that I had a bit of distance, I could recognise the tactic. Take two of your enemies and set them against each other. I’d used the same trick plenty of times myself but this was my first time on the receiving end. It was a new experience for me and I was discovering I didn’t like it very much. Maybe this was how it had felt for some of the people I’d gone up against. “Remember the rumour that the data focuses could be cracked? The only thing stopping the Council from moving against White Rose was the information they were holding. Once enough mages on the Council believed that all that blackmail material White Rose was holding on to was going to get out anyway . . . well, that was it. Kidnapping Haken just sped things up.”

  “So Vihaela wouldn’t have cared about getting the focus back at all.”

  I nodded. “She knew it couldn’t be cracked. As long as it was out there, lost, it was doing its job. She hardly had to do anything, really. Once things were set in motion, she just had to wait for the Keepers to figure out what was going on and move against White Rose t
hemselves. Levistus was the one trying to put on the brakes.”

  “So what are you going to do with that focus?”

  “Keep it as a souvenir, I guess. Not like anyone can read the thing.”

  “Levistus could.” Luna thought for a second. “He was the one behind that attack on you and Caldera, wasn’t he?”

  “Either him or someone on his team. I think they were hoping that by disappearing Leo they could dead-end the case. If Leo hadn’t talked before they snatched him, it might have worked.”

  “What do you think happened to him?”

  “You mean once they finished ripping everything he knew out of his skull?” I shook my head. I knew there was no way Levistus would have let him live.

  Luna was silent, and I found myself thinking about Leo. He’d been abused by White Rose, used as a slave and as a disposable messenger. And then when he’d fallen into the hands of Light mages, the people who were supposed to be his protectors, they’d abducted, interrogated, and finally executed him. It was a miserable end to what had probably been a miserable life, and to a certain extent, it had happened because of me—it had been Caldera and me who’d inadvertently led Levistus’s agents to where Leo was hiding.

  I hated that things worked like this. I hated that children like Leo and that nameless slave of Vihaela’s could be casually murdered, while the rulers slept easy at night, protected and safe. Sometimes a mid-level mage like Marannis would fall, but for the most part the ones who paid the heaviest price always seemed to be the ones who had the least to lose.

  “It doesn’t feel like we won,” Luna said.

  Luna and I think alike in some ways. “White Rose is gone,” I said. “Maybe Leo didn’t get to see the benefit of that, but the other slaves did.”

  “This . . .” Luna took a breath. “This wasn’t all because of me, was it? I mean, I was the one who talked you into joining the Keepers, wasn’t I? Everyone who was killed in that battle . . .”

  “No,” I said. “This fight was going to happen, one way or another. If it hadn’t happened this way, it would have happened somewhere else.”

  Luna nodded. I could tell that it was still bothering her though, and I had the feeling that might be a good thing. In a few more years, if everything went to plan, Luna would pass her journeyman tests and become accepted as a mage. She was going to have to get used to her actions having consequences, even for people she didn’t meet.

  “So who was Vihaela really working for?” Luna said.

  “The Keepers don’t know, and neither does the Council,” I said. “But we can take a guess. Levistus has been weakened, his puppet candidate for the Council seat is gone, and the status quo’s in chaos. Who’s the one person who’s going to profit the most from all that?”

  “Morden.”

  “He’s wanted that Council seat for years. Now there’s nothing standing in his way.”

  “So Levistus loses, and it just means Morden wins instead.” Luna grimaced. “Great.”

  I didn’t answer; it was too close to what had been going through my head a minute ago. It’s not the first time I’ve been caught in a power struggle between Levistus and Morden, and once again, the most I’d been able to get was a partial victory. I was still alive, but so were they.

  But sitting there in the Belfry, I made a decision. I was tired of Levistus and Morden. I’d seen enough people sacrificed as pawns in their political games. I wanted them to pay for what they’d done. Maybe for someone like me, they really were just untouchable. But if I had the chance . . .

  Then I’ll bring them down. That’s a promise.

  Something in the futures caught my attention, and I looked up. There was a mage crossing the floor towards us. Luna followed my gaze, and her eyes narrowed as she saw who it was. We watched in silence as he walked up to us and stopped. I didn’t say anything, and Luna didn’t either.

  “Hey,” Haken said. Given what had happened to him, he looked in pretty good shape. It wasn’t really a surprise; Keepers get a good health plan. “Can I have a word?” His eyes flicked to Luna.

  I paused just long enough to make it clear I was thinking about it. “I’ll be back in a bit,” I told Luna, then rose to my feet. Luna didn’t answer, and her eyes stayed on Haken as we walked away.

  Haken and I crossed the Belfry, footsteps echoing on the stone as we traced the lines of the patterns beneath our feet. Other mages were scattered around, but none came close. I could sense subtle wards meant to detect eavesdropping. We rounded a column and turned left, still in silence.

  “Committee are dragging their feet about Cerulean,” Haken said at last.

  “Yeah, I bet they are.” Cerulean hadn’t shown up for his inquiry, even though they hadn’t officially suspended him yet. That one was going to be a major embarrassment for the Keepers. Informing on the side was one thing, but having one Keeper outright betray another was not going to do their reputation any favours. About the only consolation from their point of view was that with all the other political developments, no one had all that much attention to spare for a Keeper being fired.

  “The guys we’re holding from White Rose are saying they didn’t know anything about it.”

  I shrugged. “Might be true.”

  “Yeah.”

  There was a pause. We rounded another column and passed by the reception desks, heading back across the floor.

  “So . . .” Haken said.

  “Go ahead and ask it.”

  “Why’d you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  Haken gave me a look.

  “I don’t know everything,” I said. “You’ll have to narrow down the question.”

  “I talked to Slate,” Haken said. “He said that it was because of you that they found me.”

  I grinned. “Slate must have loved having to admit that.”

  “So . . . ?”

  “So?”

  “You could have led them somewhere else.”

  “I could.”

  “So why’d you do it?”

  I walked for a little way before answering. “Maybe it helped me prove my innocence to the Keepers,” I said at last. “Maybe I didn’t see any profit in holding a grudge. Maybe it was some other reason.” I shrugged. “From your perspective, does it matter?”

  “Maybe not,” Haken said. “All the same . . . I’m curious.”

  “When Cerulean tried to shoot me, you had a split second to decide whether to try to kill me, or whether to try to stop me,” I said. “You tried to stop me. If you want a reason, you can go with that.”

  “And I assume you’re not going to tell me how you went through that wall of fire or how you vanished off our senses.”

  “Yup.”

  We’d done nearly a full circuit of the Belfry, and as we turned the final column, Haken stopped. “Then just so you know,” he said. “Levistus isn’t going to forget this. Right now he’s going for that Senior Council seat. But sooner or later, once that’s done, he’s going to come after you. There won’t be any more threats or warnings. If I were you? I’d start working on an escape plan.”

  I looked back at Haken for a second. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Yeah,” Haken said. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

  | | | | | | | | |

  It was the next day when I stuck my head inside Caldera’s office. “You rang?”

  “Yeah,” Caldera said. She was frowning at her computer. “Be with you in a sec.”

  I crossed the room and sat in front of her desk, stretching out. To the right was the small workstation I’d been using. To the left was Haken’s half of the office. The desk looked a lot clearer than the last time I’d seen it. “Haken moved out?”

  “Yes,” Caldera said without looking up. Her tone made it clear that she didn’t want to talk about it. I took the hint and stayed quiet
.

  The only noise in the office was Caldera’s fingers on the keys. She wasn’t a fast typist, and watching her, it struck me how awkward she looked sitting at a computer. Every time I’ve seen Caldera out in the field she’s looked confident and capable, but in front of a keyboard, she just looked out of place. At last Caldera took her hands off the keys and reached down to pull open a drawer. She took something out and set it down on the desk with a click. “Here.”

  The object on the desk was a small silver signet, with a stylised flame and coat of arms. With my magesight, I could sense a faint magical trace. It was a focus, and as I looked at it, I realised I knew what it did. Keepers carried focuses like these as identification symbols. This one was smaller, with a different pattern, but it was recognisable as the same basic design. It was an official Council signet.

  “Congrats,” Caldera said. “Welcome to the auxiliary corps of the Order of the Star.”

  I blinked at her.

  “No smart-arse comments?” Caldera asked.

  “I’m, uh . . . just surprised.”

  “About what?”

  “Honestly?” I said. “I had the feeling you were going to blame me for what happened with Haken.”

  “You followed the orders you were given,” Caldera said. “You did your job.”

  I looked at Caldera for a second. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, “but you don’t exactly seem happy.”

  “About what? That Haken was the one who set us up in Uxbridge?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “I’m not a fucking idiot, okay?” Caldera said. “I put it together. And yes, we’ve noticed how you kept quiet about it instead of laying another charge against the order. Sure Rain’ll appreciate it.” She gave me a look. “Picking up our politics fast, aren’t you?”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  Caldera stared at me for a second, then passed a hand across her eyes. “Fuck.” She paused. “Forget it.”

  “The thing with Haken’s getting to you, isn’t it?”

  “He was my partner for a year,” Caldera said. “I knew him when we were apprentices. Yeah, it’s getting to me.”