The Devil You Know (Jacob Graves Book 3)

by Sean Stone

  ‘No, you’ll be told by the Prime Wizard,’ Agatha said, her tone brooking no further argument. ‘Neil has been sent in the Prime’s stead. That is final. If you cannot accept this instruction then go and take it up with Magraval. We will be more than willing to handle this hearing without you.’

  Marcus fell silent. He looked about him as if searching for one final argument that might win his cause, but finally he gave up. ‘Fine. Back to the matter at hand. Jacob Graves—’ And suddenly all eyes were back on me, but not for long.

  Neil interrupted him again, this time by clearing his throat. The young boy then pulled out the centre chair and took his place in the prime position. Marcus looked murderous. Agatha and Jeremy both looked a little taken aback. Paul, however, seemed to be stifling a grin. ‘As the Prime’s Proxy, I believe it is my job to lead the proceedings.’

  Agatha jumped in before Marcus could strangle Neil. ‘Due to your inexperience, do you think it might be better if one of us handled things on your behalf?’ She kept her tone respectful, as if talking to a petulant boy who had just been crowned king.

  ‘I think that would be a good idea, but not Marcus. After all, it his fault this hearing is taking place. Would you mind leading this hearing, Mistress Agatha?’ Neil said sweetly as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Marcus had turned almost as red as his shirt.

  ‘I would be happy to, Proxy Neil.’

  The old lady turned to me at last, her eyes filled with nothing but exhaustion. ‘Jacob Graves, you have been summoned before us today to answer for two crimes. You are accused of attacking an Elder of this institution, and you are accused of using forbidden magic on an Elder of this institution. The victim is named as Marcus Noble, Spells Master. The witnesses are Marcus Noble and also the Prime Wizard, Magraval, who is not present here today, but who is represented by the Proxy Prime, Neil Garland. Do you understand all that I have said so far?’

  ‘I understand,’ I said calmly and clearly.

  ‘And how do you plead to these crimes?’

  I took a moment to consider the matter. There was no way I was going to be able to convince them that I was not guilty. Nobody would ever take my word over Magraval’s, even if he was absent. However, I could try and convince them that I’d acted out of all of our best interests.

  ‘I plead guilty. However, I acted with the best interests of this institution at heart,’ I told the Elders. Agatha’s eyes glinted with interest. Marcus’ eyes practically bulged from his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but Agatha silenced him with a wave of her hand. ‘Explain your meaning,’ she ordered.

  Here it was, time to show off some stellar silver-tongue skills. It was time to manipulate people like Magraval and Dorian did.

  ‘I learned that one of the Fae was going to try and break into this Hall to destroy the treaty that has protected this city from war for centuries.’

  ‘And how did you learn that?’ Marcus snapped. None of the Elders silenced Marcus this time.

  ‘The river nymphs told me,’ I lied. It was a suspicion of theirs, and one they hadn’t managed to prove either way. And in the end it turned out not to be true. The Fae had sent one of their own to protect the treaty.

  ‘And this information led you to attack an Elder?’ Neil asked, visibly confused. Most of the faces at the table shared his expression.

  ‘Not exactly. It’s a bit more complicated than that. I contacted Marcus and—’

  ‘And you said nothing about Fae infiltrators. You told me that you had captured one of Dorian’s assassins,’ Marcus interrupted.

  Agatha threw out a lengthy sigh in Marcus’ direction. ‘If you keep interrupting this will take all morning and I want this over with long before lunch.’

  ‘Did you have one of Dorian’s assassins?’ Paul asked, one eyebrow raised inquisitively.

  ‘I did,’ I lied. She was with me of her own accord, she wasn’t my prisoner.

  ‘And what became of her?’ Agatha enquired.

  ‘I killed her.’ Another lie. I let her go and told Dorian she was dead. He wanted her dead for betraying him. It was she who had broken his magic mirror.

  ‘Was that after you worked with her to attack me?’ Marcus demanded. ‘She wasn’t his prisoner. That was just a ruse to get me to meet him. He told me he was on our side of the war too. But when I turned up his so-called prisoner blew some elf dust in my face and knocked me out cold.’ Everything he said was true, but I was hoping I could use his current poor standing with the other Elders to my advantage.

  ‘That’s not how I remember it,’ I said, adding an air of innocence to my voice.

  ‘Oh, please.’ Marcus threw himself against the back of his chair so forcefully it nearly toppled right over.

  ‘Go on, Graves,’ Agatha prompted.

  ‘When Marcus arrived I told him what the Fae was planning to do and offered to help defend the treaty. At the time I still believed she’d come to destroy it. He told me I was a traitor to the Hall and that Magraval would rather see me dead than let me help.’ I watched Marcus grow more livid with every word I spoke. ‘Marcus attacked me and in the fighting the assassin escaped the binds I had put her in. Rather than fleeing, she then helped me subdue Marcus. In exchange for her freedom she helped me possess Marcus’ body so that I could gain access to the Hall and protect the treaty. Which I tried to do.’

  ‘How dare you slander me like this! I met you in good faith!’ Marcus roared, flying to his feet.

  ‘Marcus enough!’ Neil screamed. His youthful voice robbed him of any authority he’d hoped to project, but it was enough to stun the older wizard to silence. Marcus looked at the boy, unsure whether to obey him or clip him round the ear.

  ‘He speaks for the Prime,’ Jeremy reminded him. His voice was quiet, but foreboding all the same. The message was clear; anything Marcus did to Neil, he was in essence doing to Magraval. Marcus took several deep breaths and then dumped himself back in his chair.

  ‘Mister Graves,’ Neil said pleasantly. ‘Prime Magraval has testified to the fact that you fought to defend the treaty in the Chamber of Relics. Sadly, you were unsuccessful. As was he. Dorian’s men burned the treaty to dust.’

  Magraval had burned the treaty, not Dorian’s men. I opened my mouth to disagree and then stopped myself. Magraval was playing some kind of a game here, but so far his story was supporting my own. It was possible that Magraval, through this boy, was offering me a deal. He’d accept my own lies if I supported his. If the other Elders knew that he had burned the treaty then they might turn on him. This way he didn’t risk losing support. I had no guarantee that was what was being offered and I couldn’t exactly ask Neil if that was the case. I could either contradict him and try and work my way out of trouble, or hope I was right and take the deal.

  ‘Yes. Magraval and I both tried to stop that from happening but Dorian’s men were just too… resourceful,’ I said, holding Neil’s gaze. How much did the kid really know about what was going on? He probably knew nothing of anything. Magraval had likely told him only enough to do his duty this morning.

  ‘You’re not really going to take his word over mine are you?’ Marcus asked Neil, his tone still angry, but a little more respectful in terms of volume.

  ‘It is not for me to say which of you is telling the truth. However, Master Marcus, as our chief warrior here at the Hall, your story does not go well in your favour. Do you mean to tell us all that Jacob and his accomplice subdued you without you even putting up a fight?’

  Marcus turned to the boy, stunned. He’d been cornered now. If he stuck by his story then he looked like a pretty pathetic warrior indeed. At least in my story he went down swinging.

  ‘I have a question. If you don’t mind?’ Paul spoke up.

  ‘Go ahead,’ Neil said.

  ‘Jacob, if this assassin of Dorian’s offered to help you possess Marcus in exchange for her freedom, then how did she come to end up dead? Did you lie about killing her, or did you break your word?’

  O
ooh, he was good. I’d tripped myself up with that one. That’s the problem with telling too many lies, sooner or later they start to spiral out of control. Thankfully, I was good at thinking on my feet.

  ‘Neither. She broke her word and tried to kill me. So I killed her in self-defence.’

  Paul nodded, seemingly accepting my story. ‘Fair enough.’

  ‘So, Marcus, anything else to say?’ Neil asked, looking his way, almost goading him to contradict me and destroy his last vestiges of respect.

  ‘No,’ he growled in defeat.

  ‘Well then, I shall pass judgement.’

  Here we go, I thought. A new low for me, I was about to be judged by a guy who was too young to buy cigarettes without an ID card.

  ‘Jacob Graves, Prime Magraval has instructed me to dismiss this case on one condition. You must now swear, before the table of Elders, your loyalty to the Hall of Wizardry and to the Prime Wizard. You must renounce any loyalty to Dorian Gray and pledge yourself to our side of this war.’

  I kept my face neutral but I smiled on the inside. It was exactly the opportunity I’d been hoping for. ‘I would be happy to pledge my loyalty to the cause. But I will do so only to the Prime Wizard himself.’ A sly smile slipped onto Jeremy’s face. He knew what I was doing.

  ‘Very well, Jacob.’ Neil stood up from his seat and all of the Elders looked at him in surprise. ‘Come with me. I shall take you to see Prime Magraval.’

  Chapter Six

  ‘You cannot be serious,’ said Marcus. ‘None of us have been allowed to see Magraval since he last visited the Hall, but this enemy is going to be marched straight to him.’

  ‘I’m no enemy of yours, I literally just said I’d join you,’ I pointed out. Not that I had any intention of joining them. I didn’t relish the thought of being on Dorian’s side either, but at least I knew what I was getting with him.

  ‘This is Magraval’s will,’ Neil said, as he walked around the table and made his way toward me. Agatha looked put out by the decision but had the foresight not to say anything.

  As Neil reached me I saw that he was pretty short for a guy. He was only about 5’7 and I towered above him. He wore an air of confidence, but beneath it I could see the uncertainty. Sure, he was proud of the high position he’d been given by the Prime, but he was aware of the target that put on his back too. Anybody who wanted to get to Magraval would now go after him. Especially if they knew he was the only one who had access to the Prime Wizard. Of course, all he had to do was stay inside the Hall and he’d be safe.

  ‘Follow me,’ Neil said as he walked past me. I spared a parting glance at the Elders table and saw the four of them were on their feet looking on in bewilderment.

  I followed the boy out of the room and as soon as we were in the corridor four guards appeared around us. Two of them stood behind me and the other two stood between Neil and me, blocking my access to the Proxy. The kid was smarter than I’d given him credit for. These were not the scruffy civilians from the lobby either, they were in full Hall garb. They were dressed in black combat gear with red armoured vests. The vests showed they worked for Marcus and I wondered if Neil trusted them completely. The badge of the Hall was sown onto their chests. They’d been trained to protect their Elders.

  There was a very good chance that Neil was leading me into a trap. In fact, I was about ninety percent sure that he was. I was rather hoping that his trap would lead me to Magraval, but there was every chance that I wasn’t being taken to the Prime at all. If that was the case then I’d need to kidnap him and take him to one of my safe houses. Once there I could force Magraval’s location out of him. The four guards complicated that. I looked them all over carefully. I was confident I could take them, but they’d keep me busy long enough for Neil to escape.

  He turned left instead of right. We were heading further into the building, not toward the lobby. My suspicions of being led into a trap increased. Was there a cage in the darkest depths of the Hall with my name on it? The corridor was too narrow for a fight. If I attacked the guards I’d have nowhere to duck for cover. I’d have to rely entirely on my own magical defences and the guards were in the perfect position to attack me from all sides. Plus, the Elders were still close enough to come to their rescue. One Elder was enough to give me a run for my money, I didn’t fancy fighting four of them. Three if Jeremy sat out.

  ‘Are you actually taking me to see Magraval?’ I asked the back of Neil’s head.

  ‘Yes,’ he replied simply. People often kept their answers simple when they didn’t want to get caught in a lie.

  ‘In person? In the flesh?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then why aren’t we heading toward the lobby?’

  ‘Because this way is more secure,’ he said, never breaking his gait.

  ‘For who?’

  ‘Me. You might have people outside who will follow us.’

  ‘Hang on. Are you saying there’s another way out of this building?’

  That made him turn my way. His brow was furrowed with bemusement. ‘Of course there is. You didn’t really think there was only one way in and out of a building of this size? That would be a health and safety nightmare.’

  ‘Well… no, of course not,’ I mumbled.

  I decided to keep my mouth shut for the remainder of the journey. I’d shown myself up in front of the kid and I had no desire to do so any further. Except more and more questions flooded to my mind until I had to start asking them.

  ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Nineteen. You?’

  I chuckled, I hadn’t been expecting him to throw it back at me. ‘Thirty. How did you get this job?’

  There was a pause. ‘Magraval chose me.’

  ‘Yeah, but why?’

  ‘You ask a lot of questions,’ he muttered, clearly irked.

  ‘You don’t know, do you? He picked you at random and didn’t give you a reason. I think it’s obvious really. You’re young. You’re easy to control. You’re too young to be powerful enough to fight him and you’re too young to have developed your own ideologies. You make the perfect puppet.’

  Neil stopped and turned. I could see I’d upset him. Calling somebody the perfect puppet was bound to cause insult. That hadn’t been my intention, I was just thinking out loud.

  ‘Can you keep him quiet?’ Neil asked the guard to my right. He was too unsure of himself to give a direct order, but that was exactly how the guard took it. He swung his fist at me which I caught expertly. I shoved the guard against the wall, holding him tightly so he couldn’t escape my grip. The other guards formed a semi-circle behind me, readying themselves for a fight.

  ‘Let’s not descend into violence. I meant know offence,’ I said, holding onto the guard’s fist but looking at Neil.

  ‘Fine. But keep your questions to yourself,’ Neil muttered.

  I nodded my compliance and released the guard. To his credit, the guard didn’t throw so much as a dirty look my way. He simply turned around and continued walking. The other guards did likewise and were quickly back in their original formation.

  After walking through several restricted corridors and going up and down many flights of stairs we finally came to a small wooden door at the end of a very narrow corridor. The door was arched and looked as old as the building itself.

  ‘Isn’t this a bit of a risk showing me this door? Isn’t it for Elders only or something?’

  ‘It isn’t for the Elders. Only the Prime knows about this door.’

  ‘And now me, and you, and these four.’ I indicated the guards.

  ‘This door is protected by very old and powerful magic. Each Prime has reinforced the magic on this door to make sure it grows stronger over time. Once we’ve all gone through this door, the farther away from it we get, the more you will forget about it. The only one who will remember is me. And when Magraval no longer needs me to represent him, I will forget too. Pretty impressive, right?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said with a small nod. ‘That is prett
y impressive.’ I needed that kind of magic to protect my safe houses. Hell, I could do with putting it on my apartment too.

  Neil grabbed hold of the aged black door handle and pushed it open. The door swung outward with a long creak as if it was objecting to be used.

  I followed the boy out into a narrow alleyway. The wall outside was completely covered in moss and shrubbery. Leafy branches had grown over the top of the wall and created a natural roof shielding the entrance from above. The small alleyway’s entrance was likewise covered with shrubbery. One of the guards pushed the leaves aside and held them for us to exit the passage.

  We had emerged by the river. The six of us stood on the promenade that ran almost the entire length of the North End. There were a few people walking up and down the promenade enjoying the river view, not many though. It was winter and the middle of the morning. Most people were at work and those who weren’t didn’t want to walk by the river in cold weather. The few people that were there didn’t so much as cast us a glance.

  ‘Are they ignorant or is the magic protecting the entrance stopping them from noticing us?’ I asked. I took a few steps away from the concealed passage to see if anybody looked my way. One woman jumped, nearly dropping her shopping bag, as if I’d appeared out of nowhere. That answered my question.

  ‘What entrance?’ Neil asked, looking my way with mock confusion.

  ‘The erm…’ I stopped mid-sentence, unable to remember what I was talking about. ‘The entrance to the Hall. The secret one,’ I said, recalling the thought that was eluding me.

  ‘Where is it?’ Neil asked, clearly enjoying himself.

  I opened my mouth uselessly, no longer able to recall even the faintest image of the doorway I’d just passed through. That was a strong spell. I definitely needed that kind of magic protecting my assets. ‘Which way to Magraval?’

  ‘This way,’ he turned South and began leading our little party once more.

  I needed to figure out what I was going to do once we got there. I could attempt to kill him there and then. But then I’d need to dispatch of the guards before we arrived. If they helped Magraval then I didn’t stand a chance. But I could only kill them once I had the location in sight, otherwise Neil would refuse to take me the rest of the way. Also, I wasn’t sure if I could defeat Magraval just yet. I’d only managed to bring him to his knees before because Simon and the Orchids helped me. I still had no idea what the best strategy for fighting Magraval was.