Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (26 page)

At last Luna’s tears ran dry. “Better?” I asked as she sat up.

Luna nodded, sniffing. “I’m s-sorry I’m so useless.”

“You’re not useless.”

“Yes, I am. I’m not a mage like you are. I just keep myself safe and make everyone else worse.” Luna looked up at me with reddened eyes. “Why do you even want me around?”

I let out a sigh. “Okay, Luna? Stop it. I need you for something. You’re not useless, and if you don’t
show
you’re not useless, I’ll be dead within the week.”

Luna stared up at me. “What?”

I told her, then, everything that had happened and everything I’d pieced together: how it had been Levistus and Morden all along, why Deleo and the others had been after the cube, how she was the only one who could open the relic, and where I was now. “And that’s how it is,” I finished. “Morden’s going to make his move in a couple of days, and once he breaks through to that statue he’s going to find that it won’t open without you. If I don’t have something to pull out of my sleeve by then, I’m sunk.”

Luna sat for a few seconds taking it all in. “But what are we going to do?”

“That’s where you come in. You still have a way to get in touch with Talisid, right?”

“Yes, but—” Luna slumped. “Alex, I can’t do this. I can’t use magic, I don’t know anything. All I do is run away.”

“You wanted to get involved before.”

“I thought the one who was going to be in danger was
me
!” Luna looked up at me in distress. “I’ve never done anything useful since I met you. I just get you into more trouble. What am I supposed to do against these people? I can’t…”

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to tell you something important, so listen closely. It’s something most mages never learn at all. The most powerful weapon you have is your mind. Magic doesn’t mean anything unless you know the right
way to use it. You’re already involved—you don’t have a choice about that anymore. What you
do
have a choice about is whether you’ll help me. What’s it going to be?”

Luna looked back at me for a long second, then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and seemed to straighten. When she opened her eyes again she looked more like the girl I remembered. “Tell me what to do,” she said, and her voice was steady again.

I explained. It didn’t take long.

By the time I was done, Luna’s eyebrows had climbed almost into her hair. “Are you sure this is a good plan?”

“No, it’s a pretty crazy plan. But if we run they’ll just chase us. Levistus and Morden will want me to get them into the relic, and once they figure out that you’re the only way in—which they will, sooner or later—they’ll be after you too. This is the only way I can think of that gives us a chance to get them both off our backs.”

Luna was silent, and I could see her turning it over in her head. “What should I tell them?” she asked. “The mages at the museum?”

“Talisid should be there,” I said. “Talk to him. He made it pretty clear he didn’t want anyone else getting hold of what’s behind that door. Tell him Morden’s planning an attack and you’ll have his attention. But there’s one thing you have to keep secret: that you’re the only one who can use the cube. That’s our ace in the hole. Don’t let it slip to
anyone
.”

Luna sat a little while longer. “What about you?” she asked at last.

“I’ve done this before. I’ll be fine.”

“What if you’re not?” Luna asked quietly.

“Morden needs me to get through to the fateweaver. As long as he needs me, he’ll make sure I stay alive. It’s what happens when he
stops
needing me I’m worried about. That’s why—”

“What if you’re wrong?”

I let out a breath. “Then it’s all going to come down to you after all.”

Luna met my gaze, and there was something painful in her eyes. “Alex—”

And suddenly we weren’t alone anymore. Elsewhere changes with who’s in it, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the shift. I looked around to see that the plaza was empty and the birds were gone. “We’ve stayed too long.” I got up, pulling Luna to her feet with me. “Back through that door.”

Luna hesitated, and I dragged her along, forcing her to hurry beside me. “Wait!” she began.

“You need to get back.” We’d reached the door, and I pulled it open; beyond was the ballroom, dark and empty. “Remember: Talisid, the items, the plan. Don’t forget.”

“Alex!” Luna tried to pull back. “What’s coming? Let me—”

I pushed Luna through the door and slammed it before she could react. Instantly the courtyard was silent. Luna was safe now, back in her own dreams. I took a breath and turned.

The girl walking across the plaza towards me was nineteen years old, and she was dressed in the same clothes she’d been wearing when I’d last seen her. That had been almost ten years ago. She’d been nineteen years old then, too. Smaller than Luna, with short dark-red hair, she looked a bit like a small furry animal, full of energy and movement. I didn’t move as she approached and came to a stop a little way away. She watched me with a smile, one hand on her hip, waiting.

“Shireen,” I said at last, and let out a breath. The name sounded strange to my ears; it was the first I’d spoken it in a long time. “So you’re dead after all.”

“C’mon, Alex,” Shireen said with a grin. “When I didn’t call for nine years, that should have been a big clue.”

We stood looking at each other. When I’d known her, Shireen had so often been angry, except for that last time. She didn’t look angry now; she looked at ease. “What happens now?” I asked after a moment.

“Up to you.”

I paused, then shrugged and walked past her.

Shireen fell into step beside me. “What, you’re not going to ask me anything?”

“I’m curious,” I said. “I’m just not sure what you are.”

“I thought diviners knew everything?” Shireen laughed. “Okay, how about some proof? Let’s see…How about the time we met? Wait, I know. I could tell you the time you finally turned against Richard. I remember exactly when it happened.”

“No thanks.”

Shireen sighed. “When did you get so serious?”

“Right now, I want to leave.”

“Then where are you going?”

I started to answer, then looked around and stopped. The arcade had ended, and the building Luna had vanished into was gone. Instead, we were on a walkway running above a deserted city. On either side, stairways led down to dusty streets, stretching off into the distance. Buildings with empty windows were below, silent and still.

I turned to Shireen. “Where’s the way out?”

“Up to you.”

I hesitated. On either side, flights of stairs led down into the city, while ahead the walkway seemed to go on and on into nothingness. I didn’t like the look of the streets below. I kept walking forward.

Shireen kept pace beside me. “Why are you here?” I said, once it became obvious she wasn’t going to say anything.

“I need to talk to you about Rachel.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. She doesn’t even call herself that anymore.”

Shireen shook her head. “You don’t understand. She’s what you could have been.”

“Yeah, well, I paid the price for that.”

“You paid the price once. She has to do it every day.”

I sighed. “What are you trying to say, Shireen? You want me to feel sorry for her?”

“It’s not about feeling sorry for her.”

“Then what
is
it?” I came to a stop and rounded on Shireen. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m prisoner of a Dark
mage who’s basically Richard except not so nice. He wants me to play for his team, and my teammates are three Dark mages who each hate me for completely separate reasons. Even if I manage to keep all three of them happy—which I won’t—Levistus and that invisible assassin of his are going to want me dead for switching sides. Every one of those people I just listed could kill me if they tried, and every one of them has a reason to do it. All together, there is a
really
good chance I’m going to be dead within a couple of days. So I don’t have time for this, okay? I need to get out of here.”

Shireen had stood quietly. Now that I’d finished, she spoke again. “Why are you here?”

I turned away and started walking again. Shireen followed. “Because someone up there hates me,” I told her. “How should I know?”

“But it was your choice.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You could have been safe,” Shireen said. “Helikaon told you. Why did you stay?”

“Because I’m an idiot. Leave me alone.”

“You knew what you were doing.”

“If you know so much, why do you keep asking me?”

Shireen didn’t answer, and I stopped and looked at her. “Fine. I stayed because of Luna.”

As I said the last word, I felt something shift. I looked around and realised that the walkway had been steadily descending until it was level with the city rooftops. Ahead, it sloped down to street level, ending in front of a mansion. A familiar one.

Shireen spoke into the silence. “It’s in there.”

Slowly, I walked towards Richard’s mansion. It was exactly as I remembered it, right down to the cracked stone at the doorway. I came to a stop in front of the double doors.

“Why are you stopping?” Shireen asked from behind me. “Are you afraid?”

I stood silently before answering. “Yes.”

We stood looking at the doors for a minute. The city was
quiet, expectant, as though holding its breath. “I swore I’d never come back here,” I said at last. “When I escaped.”

“But you didn’t. Not really.”

I turned in surprise to see that Shireen was looking up at me seriously. “You never really got away. That’s why you have the dreams every night. You live alone, you don’t get close to anyone, the only human friend you’ve made is a girl who can’t be touched. Morden was right, you know—you
are
still living like Richard taught you.”

I looked back at Shireen in silence. “What does that matter?” I said at last.

“Because Morden was wrong, too. You’ve protected yourself, but you’ve protected others as well. You risked your life to try to save Luna. You’re not a Dark mage. You shouldn’t live like one.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Shireen sighed and looked away. “Alex, I was nineteen when I died. I didn’t live very long, and I made a lot of bad choices, and by the time I figured out which choices were the bad ones it was too late. I just want something good to come from it. I’ve tried with Rachel, but she won’t listen to me anymore. There’s still a bit of what we had inside her, but it’s so…twisted now that when I try, it just makes her angrier. You’re all that’s left. I don’t want everything I touched to be evil. Please.”

I looked down at Shireen. “What do you want me to do?” I said at last.

I saw Shireen close her eyes for a second, her shoulders going limp with relief. “The way out is in the mansion. It’s in Richard’s study. Walk towards the door. Once you step into the room, don’t turn aside for anything, no matter what you see. If you take even one step to the side, you’ll never be able to leave. You’ll be trapped there forever.”

I nodded.

“There’s one last thing. It’s a message for you. I had to go to a dragon to learn it. You have to remember it word for word.”

I nodded again.

“This was the message.
‘At the end, in the light of the stars, trust in your friends and forgo the greater power for the lesser.’
”

“ ‘Forgo the greater power for the lesser…’” I frowned. “That came from a dragon?”

Shireen nodded. “I don’t know what it means, but I know it’s important. It cost me a lot. Don’t forget.”

“I’ll make sure.” I looked at Shireen and felt a tug of odd feelings. “It really is you, isn’t it?”

“No.”

“But you…” I trailed off. Shireen was shaking her head, and there was something sad in her face.

“I’m only a shadow,” Shireen said. “I can look like her and I can feel like her and I can think like her, but she’s gone. Soon I will be, too. I’ve only lasted this long because of her.”

I looked at Shireen a moment longer. It was a strange feeling, looking at her through an adult’s eyes. I’d grown, but Shireen was still the same, frozen as she’d died. “I’m glad I could see you,” I said at last.

Shireen smiled. “You’ll see her again. Sooner or later.”

And with that, she was gone. All of a sudden, Elsewhere felt much emptier. I was alone in the empty city but for the mansion brooding behind me.

I took a look around, then drew a breath. “All right,” I said to no one in particular. I walked up the steps to the mansion doors and pushed. They opened at my touch. I stepped inside and they swung shut behind me.

Inside was utter blackness. Spots swam before my eyes after the brightness of the outside. I stood still for a long moment before lights started to appear, brightening ahead and above. As they grew stronger I saw that I was in the entrance hall. Magelights hung from the walls and ceiling, but they seemed dimmer than they should be. Shadows clung to the corners and beneath the tables and chairs.

The mansion was silent, but it was a different silence than outside. Outside had felt empty; this was the silence of something watching and waiting. I wanted to freeze, stay still
and hide. The first step was the hardest. The second was easier.

As I walked, I heard whispers at the edge of hearing. The house was the same, but different. Doors that should have been there were missing, walls were bare or blurred, tables the wrong shape or size. This was the mansion my mind had rebuilt in my dreams. One part, though, was perfect: the door at the end of the first-floor corridor, the entrance to Richard’s study.

I nearly stopped then. Even though I’d been awaiting it, that simple wooden door sent a stab of fear through me that made my limbs grow heavy, and I stumbled. Only the memories of Luna and Shireen kept me going. A little bit of me screamed and ran. The rest kept walking. I pushed the door open.

The room inside was different from the rest of the mansion—it was clear and detailed, a perfect replica. A fire burned low in the fireplace, merging with the dim lights to shroud the room in gloom. The floor was covered in a thick, soft carpet, muffling sound so that it took me a second to realise that the fire made no noise. Books in shelves lined the walls. To the left was an oaken desk, covered with papers. My eyes flicked to the armchair behind the desk, but it was empty. A pen was laid upon a scattering of papers, its cap still off. Although the room was silent, it didn’t feel empty. It felt as though something were waiting for me.