Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (101 page)

Luna looked from me to Variam. I could tell she wasn't sure about the plan but didn't want to go back either. “Now?” Variam asked.

I nodded. “Do it.”

Orange-red light flared up around Variam's hands and heat poured into the back of the room. The wallpaper blackened then ignited, flames licking up from the floor. Luna and I backed away towards the door.

I felt a pulse of magic and a mental chime: an alarm spell. “Keep going,” I said, but Variam didn't need to be told. More heat went in. The old bedroom was dry as dust and the flames were spreading quickly, the carpet at the end catching fire and the bed smouldering as well. The temperature in the room was rising but Variam did something and it levelled out, the heat staying in the far end of the room. Smoke was starting to spread and I coughed.

In the distance I could hear shouts and running footsteps. “Is it working?” Luna called.

“No!” I tried to think about the last time I'd seen the house react violently. Onyx had ripped a hole through the corridor. “Go for the walls!”

Variam raised his hand and an orange-red beam sprang out. It carved into the walls as though they were butter and cut sideways, burning a gash through the bones and structure of Fountain Reach.

This time the response was instant. A scream knifed through my head, pain and fury and discord. I'd been ready and only flinched, but Luna and Variam both doubled over. Variam lost his grip on his spells; the beam winked out and the heat rushed in, scorching me. “Variam!” I shouted.

Variam recovered, forcing the temperature down. The whole far end of the room was a sheet of flame now, the bed blackening and crumbling in the inferno as the fire reached eagerly towards us. Flames were licking up around the edge of the painting, the man inside seeming to glare out at us. I could sense people coming down the corridor and I recognised Lyle and Crystal. Variam struck again, that beam of fire slicing into the walls, and this time I felt the wards around us waver as Variam's attack cut through one of the weblike strands that supported the spell around Fountain Reach.

The scream was louder, and this time there was only pain. The wards shifted, turned, and I felt the pull of a gate spell, space seeming to ripple and twist just as Lyle appeared in the doorway. The spell was centred around me and Variam and Luna but Lyle was caught too, dragged in from the edge. I caught one glimpse of Lyle's startled face, Luna and Variam turning towards me, the flames guttering and dying as their fuel was sucked away from them, then the four of us were drawn elsewhere and everything was gone.

chapter 13

. . . A
nd silence.

I was in a small windowless room that smelt of dust. I spun, checking for danger, but the futures ahead of me were silent and still. I was alone.

There were no lights but somehow I could still see. The place was lit with a weird kind of shadowy illumination that wasn't light or darkness but something in between. I scanned but couldn't sense the presence of Luna and Variam or anyone else. I opened the door and stepped out into a corridor. Like the room it was lit up in the same strange half-light, and looking down the hall I could see old darkened tables and animal heads mounted on the walls.

I was in Fountain Reach . . . except I wasn't. The air was too still, the corridors too quiet. I'd never been comfortable in Fountain Reach, but this place felt utterly dead; it was hard to imagine
anything
living here. And yet at the same time it felt oddly familiar, as though I'd seen it before.

As I stood in the corridor I felt a weird shivering sensation. Just for an instant it felt as though there were someone else in the corridor walking straight through me—and then it was gone. I drew back, focusing my senses, and to my surprise found I could sense the presence of other people, very faintly. As I watched their shadowy outlines flitted through a wall and were gone.

I remembered the sense I'd had in Fountain Reach of something watching me, and realised that now I was doing the same thing. I was invisible to these people, as though I were hidden in the walls, peeking out through the cracks into the world of light and life.

This was where Vitus Aubuchon had gone. He'd created another place within Fountain Reach, a shadow reality where nobody else could go but from where he could look out . . . and draw people in. As I realised that, I noticed something else: My divination magic wasn't damped and fuzzy anymore. Experimentally I tried looking a few minutes into the future and found that I could. The wards only blocked the
other
Fountain Reach, not this one. Vitus had designed Fountain Reach to cloud the senses of anyone coming here, but he'd left it so that he could see clearly himself.

I scanned ahead through the futures, searching for movement. I found Luna first, some distance away but on the same floor. Variam was next, moving towards Luna, and Lyle was nearby too. The spell had scattered us, splitting us up around this other Fountain Reach. But as I looked further, something else caught my attention. There was someone who wasn't here yet . . . but she'd be arriving in the next couple of minutes and she was someone I did
not
want near Luna or Variam.

I turned away from Luna and began walking quickly down the corridor, searching through the futures in my head to narrow down the entry point. My footsteps echoed in the empty hallway, loud in the silence. The colours looked odd in this place, washed out and grey, and the air tasted dead and stale. I noticed my route would pass near a window and took a moment to look outside.

The view outside was . . . strange. Just like inside, everything was illuminated in a weird half-light, but there wasn't any ground. Where the grounds of Fountain Reach should have been was a greyish mist and the sky above was covered in dark cloud. Looking farther into the distance, both mist and cloud faded away within a few hundred feet, meeting in blackness. Somehow I had the feeling that getting out of here on foot wasn't an option.

Our new visitor would be arriving in only a couple of minutes, and I hurried down a narrow disused corridor towards the small door at the end. I reached the door, opened it, and paused. Behind the door was only a blank wall.

Interesting.
I closed the door, stood behind it, and waited.

One minute later, I felt a tingle of magic and there was the sound of a key turning in a lock. The door swung open—but this time it opened into a small old room, which seemed to flame with brilliant colour. This was the real world, not the half-real copy I was in. A beautiful woman in a cream-coloured suit walked in quickly, letting the door swing shut behind her without looking back.

She sensed me before she'd gone two steps, but too late. Before she could turn I had my left hand tangled in her hair and pulling her head up while my right hand held a knife against her throat. “Crystal,” I said into her ear. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Crystal held quite still. Without moving the knife I took the item from her unresisting hand, then held it up where I could see it. It was a small iron key and it radiated magic. “A focus,” I said. “So Vitus gave you a way to get in and out of this place on your own, huh?”

“I don't know what you're hoping to accomplish,” Crystal said without turning her head, “but this is not a good way to go about it.” Despite the knife to her throat, her voice was steady.

“First things first,” I said, dropping the key into my pocket. “Please don't try any attacks. No matter how fast you think you are, I promise you you're not as fast as a muscle twitch. Now how about you lead me to where Vitus Aubuchon has been taking the kids?”

“I'm not quite sure what you're talking about.”

I let myself think about the fact that if Crystal was going to be uncooperative it would be faster just to slit her throat and find Vitus's lair myself.

“Oh,
Vitus
Aubuchon,” Crystal said hurriedly. “You're looking for his sanctum?”

“Yes I am. Start walking.”

Crystal did. I matched pace with her, keeping the knife pressed against her throat and keeping my divination focused on the short-term chances of her trying anything. As long as I kept the knife there, they were very low. I'd spent enough time around Crystal to get a fairly good handle on her personality and I'd pegged her as the cautious type. I didn't think she'd try to attack on her own, not as long as she thought she could get out of this some other way. “What is this place?” I said.

“I don't actually know the details—”

I let myself think of cutting Crystal's throat again.

Crystal changed gears quickly. “—it's a shadow realm of Fountain Reach. It's a copy, slightly out of phase with reality. The wards link the copy with the original.”

“And that key is a focus that lets you go between the two, right?”

“. . . Yes. But it's not easy to use, you have to—”

“I'm sure I'll figure it out.”

“Please don't tell Vitus I let you know any of this,” Crystal said. She sounded afraid, fearful. “He'll kill me.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I'll help you. I'll take you to him. Is that all right?”

“That's great. Down these stairs?”

“Yes . . . Could you take the knife away?”

“I don't think so.” I started down the stairs, keeping the knife to Crystal's throat.

“Look, I didn't have any choice,” Crystal said anxiously. “He brought me here the first time. If I didn't help him he was going to—”

“He was going to do what?” I said. “Vitus can't do anything outside this house. In fact, I don't think he can even
leave
this house. So what exactly was stopping you from walking away as soon as you got out that first time?”

“There are—things he can do,” Crystal said with a little catch in her voice. “You don't understand. He's—”

“Oh, spare me the bullshit,” I said. “I'm not as gullible as Lyle. If you're going to lie at least make it interesting.”

Crystal was silent for five seconds and when she spoke again the pretence of fear was gone from her voice; it was precise and cool. “I'm going to enjoy watching Vitus kill you.”

“You know, that might be the first honest thing you've ever said to me.” Following Crystal's lead, I turned down another hallway; we were descending towards the lower regions of Fountain Reach. “While we're on this truthful streak, why don't you tell me why you signed up with Vitus?”

“Why should I?”

“Because you're hoping to kill me before we leave, so where's the harm?”

“That's an interesting perspective.”

“Okay, let's try another question. How long has Anne got before Vitus kills her?”

“That is the question, isn't it?” Crystal said calmly. “Let's just say that if I were you I wouldn't wait around.”

A flash of anger went through me but I kept my voice level. “You're very funny.”

Crystal suddenly came to a stop. We'd reached an intersection, corridors stretching away in all four directions into darkness. When Crystal spoke, her voice was suddenly high and frightened again. “No, please don't hurt me! I'll do whatever you say!”

I growled. “Stop that.” I was watching Crystal's future actions closely and I could sense she was coiled, ready to strike. “I told you—”

The attack came from behind: a chaotic surge of fear and emotion and confusion that scrambled my thoughts. Crystal reacted instantly, ducking away from the knife as she struck at me with a wave of agony. But I'd had an instant's warning and I was already moving, my instincts sending me diving to one side around the corner and out of line of sight while my conscious mind struggled to catch up. The backwash of Crystal's spell sent pain up and down my nerves but a moment later I had my back pressed up against the wall.

“Lyle!” I heard Crystal gasp as I collected my thoughts. “You made it!”

Anger drove out the aftereffects of Lyle's spell. “Lyle, you idiot!” I shouted around the corner. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Look, Alex,” Lyle called back. “Just put the knife down and we can talk about this.”

“Your psycho girlfriend is the one I need the knife to protect me from!” I shouted. “Along with all the apprentices she's—”

Crystal moved in fast. I saw her coming, knew she was about to attack, and turned and ran. I might have been able to take Crystal one on one, but not with Lyle helping her. I sprinted down the hallway and ducked into a side passage a moment before Crystal made it around the corner. Crystal tried to chase me, but I was faster than she was and those heels didn't do much to help her running speed. It didn't take long before she gave up and went back towards Lyle, whom I could dimly hear calling in the distance.

I slowed to a jog, searching through the futures ahead as I mapped out a route to meet up with Variam and Luna. All the time I'd been interrogating Crystal she must have been talking telepathically with Lyle, convincing him that I was the bad guy and that she needed his help and directing him in to intercept us. And she'd done it while keeping up a second conversation with me
and
while reading my thoughts, all at the same time. I'd underestimated her.

I intercepted Variam and Luna at a landing leading off into a T junction. “Variam, Luna,” I called softly around the corner. “It's me.”

“Alex?” Luna asked. She sounded relieved.

“Wait,” Variam said sharply. “Come out where we can see you.”

Luna was about to protest, but I stepped out with a shake of my head. “It's all right.” I held my hands up for Variam to see; he was in the shadows around the corner, where he thought I couldn't see him. “Okay?”

Variam studied me suspiciously for a moment, then nodded. “It's him.”

Luna, Variam, and I gathered on the landing and I gave them a quick once-over. “You two okay?”

“We're fine, we met up a couple of minutes ago,” Luna said. “Are you all right?”

I led Luna and Variam in the direction they'd come from and as I did I caught them up on my brief encounter with Lyle and Crystal. “Lyle's working with her?” Luna said indignantly.

“Much as I'd love to blame this on him, probably not. I think Crystal's using him as a patsy.”

“You're keeping tabs on them, right?”

I nodded. “We're about two minutes ahead of them. Crystal had to spin Lyle a story and it looks like it slowed them down.”

“Is Anne okay?” Variam asked.

“I think so.”

“What do you mean, you think so?”

“I think so.”

“Is she alive or hurt or in trouble or what?”

“Look, Variam, I'm navigating us a path, monitoring Crystal, watching for danger, and talking to you guys all at the same time. I'm a little—”

Fountain Reach shook. It was only a slight tremor but it was enough to make us stop in our tracks. Dust trickled from the ceiling and somewhere in my head I felt the ripple of a psychic scream, scraping along my nerves and making my hair stand on end.

“What was
that
?” Luna said.

“Trouble,” I said with a sinking heart. “Don't slow down!”

The corridor ahead came to an end in a crooked door. Variam shoved it open to reveal a wide, dark space. There was a ceiling above but it was cracked and bumpy. Skeletal bushes rose before us, long dead. I led us in and mud squelched under our feet; the floor was earth, not wood or stone. “Where are we?” Luna asked quietly, glancing from side to side.

“Hedgemaze,” I said. I'd already mapped the route and led Variam and Luna through at a fast walk. “But Crystal called the whole place a ‘shadow realm.'”

Variam looked over with a frown. “We're in a shadow realm?”

“You know what one is?”

“Yeah, but this isn't really the time,” Variam said. “Someone else just came in, right?”

The hedgemaze must have been quite a sight once. Now it was a petrified ruin, the dead wood fading into the darkness as we wound our way towards the centre.

“Onyx,” I said. I'd been searching ahead and the futures where we ran into him were very hard to miss.

“How did
he
get in?” Luna said.

“From the sound of it I think he figured out how we got here and did a repeat performance.” Probably he'd shot up the house the same way Variam had. This wasn't looking good—I'd been ready to deal with Vitus, but not Crystal and Onyx as well.