Burned (20 page)

‘But—’ Symmaris looked scared. ‘I don’t—’

‘As I said, there was a breach of the Concord last night,’ Caldera said. ‘And now there are dead bodies to clear up. We take this sort of thing seriously.’

‘But what’s that got to do with me?’

‘Because the attack was made on Mage Verus’s place of residence,’ Caldera said. ‘The same location you visited two days ago and demanded that he…’ Caldera turned to me. ‘What was it again?’

‘Demanded that I leave the country,’ I said. ‘And implied that something unpleasant might happen if I didn’t.’

Symmaris was looking increasingly panicked. ‘That wasn’t what I said!’

‘Oh,’ I added. ‘And that was after she admitted to being the one who sent those adepts who tried to beat me up that night before.’

Caldera looked at Symmaris with raised eyebrows.

‘It wasn’t me! He’s lying!’

‘You can explain it down at the station,’ Caldera said. Behind us, Sonder was watching curiously.

‘No!’ Symmaris said. She pointed at me. ‘I’m not going with him! He wants to kill me!’

‘Then if it wasn’t you, who was it?’ Caldera said. All of a sudden her voice was hard. ‘You didn’t do it? Then tell me who did.’

Symmaris hesitated. ‘I …’

Caldera shook her head in disgust. ‘Get your coat.’

‘No, wait! I can’t!’

‘I’m not asking.’

‘I can’t go down to Keeper headquarters!’

‘Then give me something,’ Caldera said. ‘Because if I don’t have someone else to pull in, it’s going to be you.’

‘All right, all right!’ Symmaris held up her hands. ‘Off the record, okay?’

‘I don’t care about the record. I just want answers.’

‘All right.’ Symmaris took a deep breath. ‘It was Maradok. He came to me and said that I needed to convince Verus to stay away from Drakh.’

‘And then what?’ Caldera said. ‘You helped him gate in? Maybe some of his friends?’

‘No! I didn’t do anything like that. I mean I talked to Redman, and I went to meet with Verus, but that was it. All I did was call Maradok and pass on the message. If he— If anything happened after that, it was nothing to do with me.’

I stared at Symmaris. Her eyes shifted away, and I was quite sure that she was lying.
Bullshit it’s nothing to do with you.
Someone had been making those gates – someone who’d been familiar with the area around my shop – and I didn’t buy for a second that the Crusaders had somehow found
another
gate expert to bring in on the plan.

‘So why does Maradok want Verus gone?’ Caldera said.

‘Because he’s working with Drakh!’

‘And you know this because …?’

‘Because he’s going to be the one who does it.’ Symmaris pointed at me. ‘The relic that the Council’s looking for? Verus is the one who’s going to give it to Drakh!’

‘And how are you so sure?’

Symmaris threw up her hands. ‘I don’t know! You think Maradok tells me this stuff? Maybe he got it from a diviner or something.
I
don’t care.’

‘Okay, I am getting sick of this,’ I said. ‘I haven’t been working for Richard for—’

Caldera raised her hand, and I cut myself off with an effort. It was bad enough that Symmaris had had a hand in burning my house down, but trying to claim that it was justified …

‘Who was involved in the attack last night?’ Caldera said.

‘I don’t know,’ Symmaris said. But her eyes shifted again.

‘What did Maradok say when you last spoke to him?’

‘I haven’t heard from him. He doesn’t talk to me.’

‘Then why—?’

‘Look, I’ve told you everything I know,’ Symmaris broke in. ‘If you want to ask questions, go to Maradok, not me. He’s the one who has a problem with Verus. It’s nothing to do with me. I can’t— I’m not going with you. Goodbye!’

‘Caldera!’ I snapped.

Caldera’s much quicker than her bulk would suggest. She jumped back just as Symmaris made a gesture with her hand and the door slammed shut in our faces with a
bang
of metal on metal. Caldera steadied herself and looked at the closed door. It would have missed, but not by much. From within Symmaris’s house I heard the hurried patter of feet, then silence. The three of us were alone.

‘Well,’ Sonder said. ‘Okay, then.’

‘She going to answer if we try again?’ Caldera asked me.

I checked for a few seconds, exploring the possibilities thoroughly. ‘No. I think she’s gating.’ I looked at Caldera. ‘I can probably find a way through those wards.’

‘No.’ Caldera shook her head. ‘We’re done.’ She turned and walked away.

I caught up with Caldera as she reached the gate, Sonder hurrying after me. ‘We’re cashing out already?’

‘Can’t bring her in,’ Caldera said. She turned out on to the pavement and we followed. ‘She’d walk in a few hours, and there’d be hell to pay.’

‘Wait,’ Sonder said. ‘You just told her you were going to bring her in for questioning?’

Caldera gave Sonder a patient look.

‘You were bluffing?’ Sonder asked.

‘There is no way in hell Rain would authorise bringing her in on this evidence,’ Caldera said. ‘Not with this thing with Drakh on our plates. He’d tear my head off if I actually arrested her.’

‘Funny,’ I said dryly. ‘I’m pretty sure we’ve pulled adepts in for questioning with less than this.’

‘Says the guy who wanted to do a ludicrously complicated plan involving timesighting an imaginary conversation.’

‘All right,’ I admitted. ‘Your plan was better. How did you know to play it like that?’

‘You told me she was the jumpy type,’ Caldera said. ‘You saw how neat and tidy that house looked? People like that, best way to scare them is to threaten to take them out of their comfort zone.’

It wasn’t something I would have thought of, but this is why Caldera’s good at her job. I guess we’re all limited by our frames of thinking. I’m a diviner first and foremost, so when I come up against a problem, divination’s what I fall back on. But for all the Council’s weaknesses, a Keeper badge carries weight. To Light mages, the thought of coming under that kind of investigation is scary. Caldera understands how to use that much better than I do.

‘Who’s Maradok?’ I asked.

‘He,’ Caldera said, ‘is a problem.’

I looked at Sonder.

‘He’s with the Guardians,’ Sonder said. He looked worried. ‘Well, he’s supposed to have Crusader sympathies, but … He’s with Council intelligence. And he reports directly to Sal Sarque.’

‘To— Oh, shit.’ Sal Sarque was one of the three votes cast against me on the Senior Council. And according to Talisid, he was Levistus’s ally. This was just getting worse and worse.

‘There’s more,’ Caldera said. She didn’t look happy. ‘Maradok’s been detailed to the Keepers for tomorrow’s operation. He’s one of the mages involved in planning it.’

We were approaching the end of the road. I stopped, forcing Caldera and Sonder to pause and look at me. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Just heard from Rain this morning.’

‘The guy who wants me dead is in charge of
planning the mission I’m going on
?’

‘He doesn’t have operational command,’ Caldera said. ‘He’s just the liaison.’

I put a hand over my eyes. ‘You have got to be fucking kidding me.’

‘It’s time we got back for the briefing,’ Caldera said. ‘We’ll report to Rain once we’re there.’

It was later that evening.

Rain pattered on the glass roof above our heads and left moving streaks on the panels to the side. It was one of those winter showers where the drops are only a few degrees above freezing, on the edge of becoming sleet or snow, and they’d been falling steadily for the past two hours. We were standing on a landing between two escalators, about ten feet above street level. Steel and glass skyscrapers rose up around us, brightly coloured ventilators poking up near their bases, and the paving stones were slick and wet. At the foot of the escalator, on the other side of the road, an office building rose on concrete stilts, lines of windows glowing white and yellow in the night.

‘Anything?’ Rain asked. The weather didn’t seem to bother him, which given his name probably shouldn’t have been all that much of a surprise.

I shook my head. ‘Not yet.’

‘It’s freezing,’ Sonder said. He was wearing an anorak, but it wasn’t stopping him from shivering.

I felt the same way, but kept it to myself. The bottom of the escalator was open to the air and the icy breeze that blew up from the wet concrete was biting right through my coat. I’m happy being a diviner most of the time, but if there’s one thing that makes you envious of elemental mages, it’s standing in the cold.

We were on the edge of the Barbican, just on the other side of London Wall. London is an old city, but the Barbican is one of the few places where old has been entirely driven out by new, a dense rabbit warren of stone and concrete and stacked square apartments, grey and brown and cold. The architectural style is called ‘brutalist’, and if you’ve ever seen the place you’ll understand why. The Barbican is home to a girls’ school, an arts centre, various different residential towers and blocks of flats and (at least for tonight) the Dark mages Cinder and Deleo, who were going to be joining us for a nice peaceful chat.

At least, that was the plan.

‘Have you decided what to do about Maradok?’ I asked Rain.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Caldera said she told you what we got from Symmaris,’ I said. ‘I figured you’ve been deciding how to deal with it.’ I looked at Rain. ‘Made up your mind?’

Rain was silent.

‘I’m guessing that’s a yes.’

‘You know Maradok’s involved in the Drakh operation.’

‘Yeah, and he’s a Light mage with the ear of one of the Senior Council,’ I said. ‘Look, you don’t need to sugar-coat it, all right? There’s no way you’re going to prosecute him.’

‘Right now, no,’ Rain said. ‘Not while we’re in the middle of this.’

I looked away. Down on London Wall, through the rain-streaked glass, the traffic rolled by.

‘But after this is over – assuming that you haven’t worked out some other arrangement – then yes.’

I looked at Rain in surprise.

‘Don’t get your hopes up,’ Rain said. ‘There’s pretty much zero chance of an indictment. But I can ask some awkward questions. Enough to stop them trying it again.’

It was more than I’d expected. ‘Thanks.’

‘You’re part of my team, and you do good work,’ Rain said. He nodded at me and Sonder. ‘I’m going to check in with Caldera and the other backup. Report in as soon as you get something.’ He turned and walked away down the escalator.

I looked after Rain. ‘Huh.’

‘He seems to like you,’ Sonder said.

I gave Sonder a glance. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘No.’

I raised my eyebrows and looked away. Out on the road, a bus rumbled past, city lights reflecting off its red sides.

‘You haven’t said anything about Symmaris,’ Sonder said eventually.

‘I think I just did.’

‘I mean what she told us.’

‘About what?’

‘About you getting that relic for Drakh.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Not you as well.’

‘I’m serious.’

‘Sonder, ever since I entered mage society, I’ve had to deal with Light mages assuming the worst of me. First they assumed that because I was Richard’s apprentice, I must be a murdering psycho. After I left him, they
still
assumed that I was a murdering psycho. Now they think that I’m going to go
back
to Richard to become a murdering psycho. This isn’t anything new.’

‘But they’re acting like they know it’s going to happen.’

‘No, we’ve got one report
saying
that they know it’s going to happen. Which, by the way, comes from a proven liar.’

‘It seems like they believe it.’

‘It doesn’t matter what they believe. If someone tells me they believe I’m going to take up morris dancing, I’m not going to go out and buy a set of bells and a subscription to
Morris Dancer Monthly
.’

‘It’s not the same thing.’

‘It
is
the same thing. I’m not going to turn into a murdering psycho, I’m not going to take up morris dancing and I’m sure as hell never going back to working for Richard. What I do is
my
choice. Not theirs.’

‘Then why are they so sure?’ Sonder said. ‘What if they did get it from a prophecy? Or a divination?’

‘Divinations can be misinterpreted. And the only prophecies that are that accurate come from dragons, and the Council doesn’t deal with dragons.’

‘But what if they
are
right?’

‘Okay, Sonder,’ I said. ‘You know what? Let’s play your game. Let’s say they are. What are you going to do? Sell me out to the Council?’

‘That’s not what I meant…’

‘Then you’d take matters into your own hands? Kill me yourself?’

‘What? No!’

‘Then let’s say Levistus’s proposal gets voted through,’ I said. ‘All of a sudden my status with the Council is kill-on-sight. Are you going to help me, or turn me in?’

Sonder was silent. ‘I don’t want to pick either way,’ he said at last.

‘You’re not going to have a choice. If you have information about where I am, then you either keep it to yourself – in which case you’re betraying your oath to the Council – or you sell me out. There’s no in between. For someone like you, on the inside of the Council, then it’s all shifting allegiances and politics. But for someone like me? I’ve got people I can trust, and people I can’t. Which are you?’

Sonder met my eyes for an instant, then his gaze flicked away. He looked down at the floor. ‘I don’t know.’

The communicator in my ear chimed. ‘Verus?’ Caldera’s voice said.

I turned away. ‘Receiving.’

‘Coatl just picked up a gate. Expect company.’

‘Understood,’ I said. The communicator cut off and I looked at Sonder. ‘We’re up.’

Sonder nodded. I had the feeling he was relieved to have an excuse to end the conversation. We took the escalator and walked over the bridge into the Barbican.

The inside of the Barbican is railings and brown stone, long walkways separating hulking mounds of brick and concrete. The sounds of traffic faded as we moved deeper into the maze, until it was only a murmur in the distance. The path we were following ran straight, then opened up into a giant empty space, looking down upon a long artificial lake. Blocks of flats and an arts centre were placed on the other side, their white-yellow lights reflecting off the dark water. One or two figures moved on the plaza, but not many. Despite the lack of people, it didn’t feel empty. It felt as though we were being watched.