Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (123 page)

“You're telling me they'd listen to people being murdered, but they wouldn't read a sign on the door?”

“Yes! Dark mages are
different
from you, don't you get that? They don't follow rules and they don't do as they're told! If you set a boundary the first thing they'll do is push it to see if you'll do anything. What Deleo is doing is a normal way to send a message in Dark society, and if you don't understand that then you shouldn't be here.”

Sonder and I stared at each other for a moment, then Sonder looked away. “I'm not here because of you.” He sounded defensive. “I've been doing Council work for the Keepers since last year.”

“I know.”

“I know what I'm doing,” Sonder said. “It's not like I'm an apprentice anymore. They keep saying—” He stopped and went on. “It's not like it's all new to me. I see things that most people never do. Crimes, secrets . . . They think it's hidden, but it's not.”

“But they don't quite take you seriously, no matter how much you know, do they? Trust me, I know all about that.”

Sonder stood in silence for a moment. “How could you ever join people like this?” he said at last.

I knew Sonder wasn't talking about Light mages anymore. “People change, Sonder,” I said. “I know you see a lot, and I know you see things that others can't. But you've always been detached from it. Keepers like Caldera don't need you to be involved, they just need you to be good with your magic.”

“I
do
get involved.”

“Because of other people,” I said. “The main way you use your timesight is to help everyone else out. You're not the one who causes the problem—you're the one who gets called in after someone
else
causes a problem.” I looked at Sonder. “In a lot of ways you're an example of what's best about Light mages. But it makes it hard for you to understand people like me and Deleo. When you really and truly screw things up—when you look around and realise that your life's a disaster and it's nobody's fault but your own—then it makes you ask some hard questions. You look into the mirror and you realise you don't much like the person looking back at you. And you start figuring out how to change that.” I shrugged. “Or you stop looking into mirrors . . . You've never had to do that. You've never had to really stop and question your beliefs, because they've worked. It's not a bad thing. Just . . . remember that it's not that way for everyone else.”

Sonder didn't answer. “What else did you see?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, Sonder,” I said. “Our magic types aren't
that
far apart. You were looking back for the last time I was here, weren't you?”

Sonder's not a good liar. He hesitated just long enough to make it very obvious what the answer was. “Don't worry about it,” I said. “I was going to ask you to do it anyway. Did you see any trace of Catherine?”

“No,” Sonder admitted.

“But the wards are down.”

“They're down now,” Sonder said. “They're not down
then
. Anything past about nine years just blanks out. And it's at the edge of my range anyway.”

I nodded, hiding my disappointment. I hadn't really been expecting it to be that easy but it had been worth a try. “I guess we keep looking.”

Caldera came back a few minutes later. “Anything?” I asked as she walked in.

“Waste of time,” Caldera said. “This place hasn't been used in years.”

“Deleo was here,” Sonder said. “She killed three men who tried to loot this room five months ago.”

“Dark-style home defence, huh?” Caldera glanced at the ruined sofa. “A couple of the other rooms have been trashed too.”

“Should I check them?” Sonder asked.

Caldera shook her head. “No, it's Richard I want. Deleo's only important if she can lead us to him.”

“So we're going?” I said.

Caldera raised an eyebrow. “In a hurry to leave?”

“I'm in a hurry not to run into Deleo.”

“So watch for her.”

“I've been watching for her nonstop since we gated in,” I said. “You know the best way of making sure we don't run into her? Not sticking around any longer than we have to.”

“I'm a Keeper, Verus,” Caldera said. “If we ran scared every time we had to deal with a Dark mage, we wouldn't be much good at our jobs.” She looked at Sonder. “Can you follow where Deleo went?”

“I don't think she came in the front door,” Sonder said.

“She wouldn't have to,” I said. “She knows the whole mansion and there are no gate wards. She can gate into any part she likes.”

“Then let's check the basement,” Caldera said.

I sighed and started towards the doorway. “I knew you were going to say that.”

* * *

“I
t's warded,” I said.

We were at the end of the main hallway on the ground floor. The entrance to the lower levels was a simple arch in the wall, and the glow from Caldera's light illuminated stone steps leading down into shadow. “It's another alarm ward, right?” Sonder said, concentrating on the archway. “It looks the same as the first.”

“It is.”

“Right,” Caldera said, walking to the wall. “Same again, then.”

“Don't!” I said sharply. “It's a trap.”

Caldera frowned at me. “I can't see anything.”

“The alarm ward is just a cover,” I said. “It's meant to make you think that you can get past it the same way you did the first. The real defence is there.” I pointed down into the darkness. “Anything that goes down there is going to summon a nocturne.”

“What the hell is that?”

“Darkness elemental. They hunt by sound. You don't want to meet one.”

“So what's the trigger?” Caldera said. “How do we get around it?”

“If there's a limit to the trigger area, I can't find it,” I said. I'd been looking through potential futures and I couldn't find a single one where we went down there without fighting the thing. “And it's sensitive. It's not just set to living things, objects are going to trigger it too.”

“There has to be some way to avoid it, right?” Sonder said. “Maybe a password?”

“I'm not sure there is.”

“Really?”

“Look, I've seen a lot of magical defences and they usually have a pattern. They're designed to let the right people in and keep the wrong people out. This one isn't made that way. It's the kind of ward you set up if you don't want to let
anybody
in. Even Deleo would have trouble disarming this without setting it off first.”

“Why would she do that?” Sonder asked.

“If she wasn't coming down here either,” I said. “This trap is the equivalent of filling a room with poison gas and then sealing it from the outside. You don't do it if you're planning to use it.” I looked at Caldera. “Deleo hasn't been using this mansion. The only reason she comes here is if someone trips the burglar alarm, so she can reset the wards.”

“You mean that's what she's been doing until now,” Caldera countered. “She could have set this ward up to last for ten years and be planning to disarm it when Richard came back.”

“Which we've seen absolutely no evidence for.”

Caldera looked down the steps with narrowed eyes. “If we took this thing on, could we beat it?”

I looked at Caldera in disbelief. “You've got to be kidding me.”

“Well?”

“I have no idea! Combats are way too chaotic to see more than a few seconds ahead. I can tell the thing's going to go out of its way to try and kill you, isn't that enough?”

“Why her?” Sonder asked.

“Because she makes the most noise.”

“So make an educated guess,” Caldera said. She folded her arms and looked at me. “Can we get past this thing?”

It's times like this that remind me just how big a gap there is between elemental mages and diviners. For me, combat is dangerous. A bullet or a blade will kill me as fast as anyone else and the best way to avoid that is not to be in a fight in the first place. I have to be afraid of physical threats, or I wouldn't survive. For mages like Caldera it's different. The shields and defensive spells of elemental mages aren't invulnerable but they're damn close, and the kinds of weapons that would kill an unarmoured human—guns, knives, grenades—don't do much to an elemental mage except piss them off. Bringing them down in a straight fight takes the kind of firepower that the average person is simply not going to be carrying around, which means that when an elemental mage looks at an ordinary human being, they know that barring something unexpected they've got nothing to fear from them. It gives them a very different mindset from someone like me.

I looked at Caldera, sizing her up. Heavyset and overweight, she didn't look like most people's idea of an action heroine. But I'd been watching her on the way here and I'd noticed that she didn't move like someone who was unhealthy, and also that she hadn't gotten out of breath once. There might be a lot of fat on her but I had the feeling there was a lot of muscle too, and the way she acted gave me the impression that she knew how to take care of herself. A sparring match with her would be interesting.

“Well?” Caldera said.

“Probably,” I said reluctantly. I really didn't want to encourage Caldera but I also didn't want to lie. “Nocturnes don't have the power of true elementals. But I can't guarantee that the fight won't tip Deleo off too. And I don't care how good you are, you couldn't take her
and
a nocturne at the same time.”

Caldera looked away. “Look, don't you think it's time to get out of here?” I said. “Maybe you're right about Richard and maybe you're not, but this place has been empty for years. If there's anything to find, it's not here.”

Caldera hesitated and, looking ahead, I could tell she was at last seriously thinking about it. I would have liked to know more, but I'd already spent too long focusing on the futures of us fighting the nocturne and I needed to get back to watching for danger. I sent my senses branching out ahead through the futures of us waiting where we were now, looking for any shift in the status quo.

And with a jolt I found it. We weren't alone in the mansion anymore. There were people here—familiar people, heading straight for us. “We have to go,” I said. “Now!”

Sonder and Caldera looked at me in surprise. “Why?” Sonder asked.

“Because there's a bunch of people coming here to kill me, and they're going to do it unless we get out of here
right now
!”

Sonder's eyes widened. “Wait, it's—?”

“Yes!”

“How do—?” Caldera started to ask.

“Because I've seen them!” I was frantically mapping out escape routes and it didn't look good. They were directly between us and the front entrance—they must have come in the same way we did—and they were closing in fast. We'd have to get around them or go over.

Caldera frowned at me. “Why do they want to kill you?”

“Because of something I did ten years ago—I'll tell you the story, but not here!”

“Wait,” Caldera said. “I'm not moving unless you tell me more than that.”

I wanted to scream. “Are you
trying
to get us—”

I'd been searching as fast as I could through the futures and in that instant I realised two things. First, using the annuller hadn't worked. In all of the futures in which I shifted my position, the path of the incoming group adjusted to match me. They knew exactly where I was and trying to hide wasn't going to help. Second, they were moving faster than we were. Even if I could get Caldera and Sonder moving, they would be on us before we could get out of the mansion. “Too late,” I said, looking down the corridor. A moment later Will appeared around the corner.

chapter
9

T
he Nightstalkers had come out in force this time, and they just kept coming around the corner one after another. Will was at the front with Lee and Dhruv flanking him, gold-hair girl and Captain America were right behind with Ja-Ja the life-drinker, and at the back, almost hidden by the others, was a girl I hadn't seen before who looked English. Seven in all. They advanced down the corridor towards us.

Caldera stepped between me and them. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Will came to a halt and the rest of them followed his lead. He didn't look at Caldera; just like each time before, his eyes stayed locked on me. “I'm not here for you.”

“You're William Traviss, aren't you?” Caldera said. “Mind telling me what you're doing on a mage's property?”

“I don't care whose property this is.” Will shifted his stare to Caldera. “The man behind you murdered my sister and I'm here for him. Get out of my way.”

Caldera looked back at him, then turned her head just slightly towards me, not taking her eyes off Will. “Verus?” she said, and there was a slight edge to her voice. “Anything you want to tell me?”

I let out a breath. The futures were shifting too much to make any useful predictions now. It was all going to depend on Caldera, and I couldn't tell which way she would jump. “When I was Richard's apprentice, I was part of a team that captured Will's sister,” I said. I kept my voice level. “Will thinks she was killed. I don't know if it's true.”

“Liar!” Will snarled, his eyes flaring. “You knew what was happening to her!”

I looked away, unwilling to meet Will's eyes. “You think I didn't know?” Will said, and I could hear the hate in his voice. “A year she was held in here. So you sick fucks could use her for fun!”

“And that was why I tried to break her out!” I snapped back. “Yes, I screwed it up, but at least I tried!”

“Right,” Will said scornfully. “You were trying to save her.”

“Whether you believe it or not, it's the truth. And how are you so damn sure she's dead? Even
I
don't know what happened to her!”

“She died here in this mansion,” Will said. “And I'm going to make sure the same happens to you.”

“We just did this! You were in a train crash twelve hours ago! How are you even here?”

“Enough!” Caldera shouted.

Will and I both stopped. “You,” Caldera said, pointing at Lee. “How did you get in here?”

“Uh . . .”

“Through the door, or through the archway in the wall?”

“None of your business,” Will said, just as Lee said, “The archway.”

Will glared at Lee and Lee dropped his eyes. “At least you've got some sense,” Caldera said. “Now let's see if I've got this straight. Are you telling me the reason you've come here is to murder the mage behind me?”

“
He's
the murderer!” Will said.

“And I'm Keeper Caldera of the Order of the Star,” Caldera said calmly. “That means I police crimes involving mages. Are you about to commit one?”

“The only crimes you Keepers care about are the ones where it's mages that are the victims,” Will said. He was focused on Caldera now, eyes narrowed, and he wasn't backing down. “Murdering an adept doesn't even count in your book, does it? We're nothing to you.”

“The law is the law,” Caldera said. “And it applies to adepts as well as mages. You might want to think about that.”

The rest of Will's group had been silent until now, but at this point gold-hair girl spoke up. “So what are we supposed to do when some mage decides to enslave us?” She looked angry. “Just take it?”

“You can bring your case before the Council,” Caldera said. “Your petition will be heard.”

“Right,” gold-hair girl said sarcastically. “And they're going to care.”

“I don't make the laws,” Caldera said. “But I do enforce them.” Her voice sharpened. “Now let's get something clear: this is not up for debate. I'm here on Council business and you're trespassing. I'm going to have to ask you to leave.”

“You're right,” Will said, and his voice was soft. His eyes were fixed on Caldera. “It's not up for debate.”

I felt the mood in the corridor shift, and the futures shifted with it. All of a sudden I could sense violence. “Walk away, William,” Caldera said quietly.

“I walked away from Verus yesterday,” Will said. “Not this time.” He held out his hand to Captain America without looking. I saw Captain America's eyes flick between Caldera and me and he hesitated for just an instant, then he reached into thin air. Space magic flickered as he pulled out Will's shortsword and handed it to him then took out a submachine gun for himself. Gold-hair girl's eyes narrowed on Caldera and I felt the familiar trace of fire magic beginning to build.

“One more step forward,” Caldera said, “and you'll be attacking a Council Keeper.” Caldera was standing in the middle of the corridor facing all of them, her voice steady. “All of you listen to me very carefully. You might think you're fighting some sort of war against mages. You're not. The Council knows all about you and they've left you alone. Use those weapons in your hands and that will change. And you will not like the consequences.”

“The Council isn't here,” Will said. He was standing quite still and I knew he was holding his magic ready. When he moved, it would be very fast. “Just you.”

“And me,” I said, stepping forward and looking between the adepts. “If you keep following Will, it's going to get you killed. Don't you see that?”

“Stay out of this, Verus,” Caldera said.

I didn't look away from Will. “In case you haven't noticed, I've kind of got a stake in this.”

“Ignore the Keeper and the other one,” Will said over his shoulder. “We're only here for Verus.”

“That's not how it works,” Caldera said sharply. “If you—”

“Look out!” I snapped and jumped back just as Will lunged for me.

I'd seen Will in action enough times now to figure out that in terms of straight-up combat ability, his magic was a close match for mine. I could predict his moves, but he was so quick that all my divination let me do was keep up with him. He closed the distance between us in a flash, and if I hadn't already jumped back he would have run me through.

But while Will might be faster, Caldera had a lot less distance to cover than he did. She stepped into his way and Will slammed straight into her centre of mass with a
thud
. Caldera didn't even budge; it was as if Will had run into a wall. She tried to grab him, but even though Will had to be hurting from the impact he was still fast enough to dodge aside and try to get past again.

But they'd forgotten about Sonder. Sonder had kept his mouth shut in the conversation and stayed behind Caldera, but now he put out his hand towards Will, his face set, and cast his own time spell, similar to Will's but inverted. The two spells met and cancelled each other out and all of a sudden Will was moving at normal speed. He stumbled and came to a stop, a look of surprise flashing across his face.

Caldera hit Will in the chest. It was an open-hand strike, and she drove up off the floor with all her weight behind it. The impact lifted Will into the air and threw him the best part of ten feet, and he hit Dhruv on the way down. The two of them went down in a tangle of arms and legs.

Caldera glared at the adepts, her hands low and spread. “Who's next?”

Will pulled himself up, gasping. He'd been winded and it took him a few seconds to catch his breath. “Shoot him!” he said, pointing at me. “He's right there, just kill him!”

Captain America and gold-hair girl had both been ready to fire when Will had rushed in, but the people in the way had made them hesitate. Now they both aimed at me, and as they did I sidestepped behind Caldera. Captain America tracked me with his gun, saw that Caldera was in the way, and checked his fire.

Gold-hair girl didn't. Red light flared around her hands and ground fire roared out. It was directed at me but hit Caldera instead, and Caldera disappeared in a flash of flame. An instant later the fire was gone. Caldera wasn't. Her clothes were scorched and smoking but she didn't even look scratched and I could see earth magic glowing about her, reinforcing and strengthening her body. “You,” she said to the adepts, “are starting to piss me off.”

Several of the adepts took a step back. Will didn't. “You cowards!” he snapped. “We've beaten mages before!” Without looking back he charged straight for me. After a moment's hesitation the rest of them followed, and that was when things got really messy.

The corridor dissolved into a melee, weapons and fire and confusion. Will was trying to get past Caldera, bullets and ground fire flashing out past them, and the hallway was a press of bodies and blows. There was too much going on and it was all I could do just to keep myself alive. Again and again I saw myself fall dead or wounded, stabbed or shot or burnt, and again and again I slid aside just enough that the strike would miss. The air heated from the fire magic, and bullets struck chips of stone from the walls. Caldera stood alone against the tide but the corridor was narrow and they couldn't all reach her at once. They kept getting in each other's way, and whoever was at the front would be focused by Sonder's slowing magic and by Caldera's punishing blows. One hit was all it took to send them staggering back, but as soon as they did another would move in to take their place.

The Indian boy, Dhruv, threw a set of metal spheres into the air; an invisible field caught them and sent them spinning around him in an elliptical orbit, moving faster and faster before zipping towards me as though hurled from a sling. I ducked behind Caldera and they slammed into her instead, cracking off her hardened skin. “Stop doing that,” Caldera said through clenched teeth, aiming another punch at Will.

“Some of us don't have stone skin,” I said just as Captain America popped up around Will and fired at me point-blank. I was already dodging and the burst hit thin air; he fell back instantly, ejecting his magazine and reaching for a new one.

“Find us a way out,” Caldera said over her shoulder, but I couldn't answer; Dhruv was sending another volley at me from over Will's head and this time he curved them in, attacking from the side. I had to dive sideways, stumbling for a second, and as I came to my feet another blast of flame engulfed Caldera.

Ja-Ja was on her instantly. The life-drinker had stayed at the edge of the fight, lurking and waiting to strike, and in the second that Caldera was still blinded from the blast he struck. Green-black light flashed at his palm as he touched Caldera's side, and even at a distance I felt a draining, tugging sensation, like being on the edge of a whirlpool.

Caldera gave a roar that was half rage and half pain, and struck at Ja-Ja with the ferocity of a wounded bear. I heard the crack as her blow landed and Ja-Ja went flying down the corridor, but Caldera stumbled and went to one knee. She was up again in an instant and I knew combat reflexes were keeping her moving—you
never
stay down in a fight, you always get up as fast as you can—but she was swaying and I could tell she was badly hurt.

Ja-Ja picked himself up. Caldera's punch should have broken his bones but my heart sank as I looked at him and I saw that he was smiling. Whatever he'd taken from Caldera, it had been enough to let him shrug off the hit. “Tastes nice,” he said. “I could go for dessert.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Captain America snapped at Ja-Ja. He was still holding his gun, but he wasn't aiming it at me anymore.

“We said don't hurt her!” Dhruv shouted.

Ja-Ja gave Dhruv a contemptuous look. “Yeah, you were doing so great.”

Will was hesitating, looking between Caldera and Ja-Ja. For the moment the adepts were distracted but I knew it wouldn't last. One of the metal spheres Dhruv had been firing at me was lying on the floor, and I scooped it up. “Caldera!” I said sharply with a note of command in my voice. “Watch!”

Caldera turned, hurt but angry, and Sonder did as well. Before Caldera could speak, I flicked the sphere back down the corridor. It glanced off the wall and through the archway down to the basement, and I heard the
clack-clack-clack
as it went bouncing down the steps. Caldera and Sonder stared for a second, then their eyes went wide at the same instant. I put my finger to my lips.

“Keeper,” Will said, and all three of us turned to look at him. He was frowning at Caldera. “We're not here for you. You and the time mage can go. We just want Verus.”

Caldera looked back at him, then gave him the finger.

Captain America raised his eyebrows; he actually looked impressed. Ja-Ja looked eager, and I knew he was hoping Caldera would say no. Will just looked pissed off. “You aren't going to win this,” he said. “Get out of—”

The nocturne came out of the shadows, homing in on Will like iron filings to a magnet. Its body was black smoke and blended into the darkness behind it so perfectly that only its blue-white eyes were visible. Will leapt back, eyes going wide in shock, but even he wasn't quick enough and a tendril of darkness twined around his leg, yanking him off his feet.

The corridor erupted into chaos, the adepts scrambling to get away from the nocturne or rushing to fight it, but this time I wasn't watching. I grabbed Caldera's arm and yanked at her. Even wounded as she was, it was like trying to move a rock, but it got her attention. “Come on!”

We fled towards the stairs. Before we got out of sight I took a glance back and had one glimpse of Will on his back, slashing at the nocturne as it pulled him in. Captain America was kneeling and firing, gun flashing in staccato bursts, the nocturne reaching for him, and then we were racing up the stairs with the shouts and gunfire fading behind us.