Burned (3 page)

‘Like how many times? Twice in the past fifty years?’

‘There’s another way,’ Anne said quietly.

Luna, Variam and Sonder all turned to Anne in surprise. Anne’s so silent in these discussions that it’s easy to forget that she’s even there. ‘How?’ Luna asked.

Anne nodded at me. ‘That was what you were getting at with that question about dependents. Wasn’t it?’

The others looked at me questioningly. ‘The resolution applies to my dependents.’ I didn’t want to speak, but I forced myself to. ‘If you weren’t my dependents, it wouldn’t apply.’

‘You mean before the end of the week?’ Variam said.

‘It’s tight, but it’s possible.’

‘Wait a second,’ Luna broke in. ‘That’d help us. It wouldn’t help you.’

Variam frowned. ‘Yeah. I mean, that wouldn’t stop…’

I looked back at Variam silently.

I saw Variam’s expression change as he got it. ‘Oh, no. No way. You are not trying to do this self-sacrificing shit.’

‘I’m with Vari,’ Luna said. ‘We are
not
just giving up on you.’

‘It might be a good idea,’ Sonder said. ‘I mean, if—’

Variam pointed at Sonder. ‘Shut the fuck up!’

‘I just think we should look at the alternatives.’

Luna opened her mouth, and I could tell she was about to lose it. ‘Stop it,’ I said, putting steel into my voice. ‘We don’t have time for this. Not now.’

Luna’s eyes flashed, but she obeyed. ‘I’m not sacrificing anything,’ I said. ‘I’m going to work with Talisid to try to get this resolution blocked. But no matter what I do, there is a good chance it’s not going to work. If that happens, I want to have a backup plan. I’m not exposing any more of you to this than I have to.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Variam said with a frown.

‘I don’t care.’ I looked around the circle. ‘So, new issue. How can we get the three of you out of being my dependents by the deadline?’

There was a moment’s silence. ‘Well…’ Sonder said. ‘They could apprentice to another mage.’

‘I’m
already
apprenticed to another mage, you dumbarse,’ Variam said.

‘You know how long Council approval takes,’ I said. ‘Especially at this time of year. I don’t think we could get an apprenticeship approved in time, and even if we did, it wouldn’t change things. If they’re including Vari on the list, then it’s as good as saying that being someone else’s apprentice doesn’t stop me from being his sponsor.’

‘Wait!’ Sonder said. ‘That’s it!’

‘What?’ Luna said. From her expression she still wasn’t in a good mood.

‘We can’t get an apprenticeship though in time, but we
can
change a sponsor.’ Sonder looked excited. ‘Someone I know did it last year. I remember because it was just before I left for Washington. All you need is for one mage to testify that they’re taking responsibility for the sponsorship, and for two other mages to stand as witnesses.’

‘But how long would it take to go through?’ I said. ‘If it’s another…’

Sonder was shaking his head. ‘It doesn’t need Council approval. All you have to do is get it notarised by a representative from the apprentice programme.’

‘Vari?’ I said. ‘Does that sound right?’

‘Beats me,’ Variam said. ‘I know you can change it, but I dunno how.’

‘It’s legal,’ Sonder said. ‘I promise.’

I looked around. ‘Okay. So if we do this, who should we be asking?’

‘Landis,’ Luna said instantly.

I looked at Variam. ‘Would he be willing?’

Variam thought for a second, then nodded. ‘Yeah. Getting him to take on Luna and Anne’s going to take some convincing, but he’ll do it. He’s not going to leave them out in the cold.’

Landis is Variam’s master, and a Council Keeper. I remembered back when Variam wouldn’t have trusted a Keeper as far as he could throw him. For Variam to say something like that about Landis meant a lot. ‘Landis would be sponsoring me for the programme?’ Anne asked. ‘But I’m not even a member any more.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ Sonder said. ‘You don’t have to be attending classes. You just have to
not
be sponsored by Alex.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Sounds good. That just leaves one problem.’ My eyes rested on Luna.

‘It’ll work,’ Sonder said. ‘I’ve seen…’ He saw where I was looking and trailed off. ‘…Oh.’

‘Oh?’ Variam said. ‘Oh, what?’

‘What Sonder’s describing will work for you and Anne,’ I said. ‘Not for Luna.’

‘But Landis could…’ Variam stopped.

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Even if Landis takes over her sponsorship, she’ll still be my apprentice. Which means she’ll still be on the hit list.’

‘Well…’ Sonder said. ‘You could get the apprenticeship dissolved.’

I felt a brief flash of anger.
And that’s what you’ve been wanting, isn’t it?
It had been the subject of one of the last conversations I’d had with Sonder, the previous year. He’d wanted Luna away from me, from my influence …

I saw Anne’s eyes turn to me and forced the feelings down. This wasn’t the time. ‘I don’t
want
to stop being Alex’s apprentice,’ Luna said. ‘Not like this.’

‘But if it’s the only way…’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘You know how slow Council courts are. By the time we’d brought a petition for dissolution, had it received, set a hearing, gone to the hearing, had the hearing resolved and had Luna entered into the records as an independent apprentice, we’d be dead five times over.’

‘What if you ran?’ Anne said.

‘You mean out of the country?’ Luna asked.

‘That could work,’ Variam said. ‘Just pick some place where they have crappy relations with the British Council so the Keepers can’t get an extradition.’

‘And while you’re gone, Alex could go through the courts with the dissolution,’ Sonder said. ‘Then you could come back afterwards.’

‘Sonder, if Luna has to run, it’ll be because the resolution’s gone through and is also applying to
me
,’ I said. ‘I’m not going to be in much of a position for court proceedings.’

‘Oh.’

‘I guess that could work,’ Luna said slowly, ‘but…’

‘Better exiled than dead,’ Variam said.

‘But then what?’ Luna said. ‘It’s not as though it’s going to expire, is it?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘It won’t. If you do this – if
any
of us do this – we’ll be exiled until the Council decides to repeal the resolution. Which probably means for ever. We’ll never be able to come back to our old lives.’

‘I don’t want to do that,’ Luna said. ‘Not if there’s any other way.’

‘What other way?’ Variam said. ‘Because if this vote thing falls through, which seems pretty likely, then the Keepers are going to be showing up right at your door. And don’t think you can hide and wait for it to blow over. Catching people is what the Keepers do.’

‘I don’t like the idea of running away,’ Luna said.

‘There might not be a choice!’

‘Maybe there is.’

We all looked at Luna. ‘What are you talking about?’ Variam said.

‘The problem is that I’m Alex’s apprentice, right?’ Luna said. ‘What if we changed that?’

‘How would—?’ I began, then stopped.

Variam got it a second later. ‘Taking your journeyman tests?’

‘It’d work, wouldn’t it?’ Luna asked. ‘The resolution says Alex’s dependents. Well, if I’m a journeyman mage, then I can’t be
anyone’s
dependent.’

‘It would work…’ I said slowly, ‘but…’

‘No, it wouldn’t,’ Variam said. ‘Have you seen the waiting lists for those tests? They’re months long.’

‘Actually, they’re not,’ Luna said.

‘Okay,’ I said to Luna. ‘You’ve obviously got something in mind. Let’s hear it.’

‘Here’s the thing,’ Luna said. ‘I know your plan’s always been for me to take those tests someday, but I was worried that the Council would do something to block it. Claim I was an adept and wasn’t allowed, or something like that. So I went and looked up the laws. Turns out,
any
apprentice has got the right to demand to be tested as a journeyman. There are only three conditions.’ Luna held up her fingers, ticking them off one by one. ‘First, you have to be officially recognised by the Council as an apprentice. Done that. Second, you can’t be wanted for any crimes or breaches of the Concord. Done that too. Third, you have to have been sponsored for the apprentice programme and you have to have been attending classes for at least fifteen months. I’ve put in more than twice that long.’ Luna lowered her hand and looked around. ‘No requirement for Council approval. Doesn’t even say that you have to be a mage. It just says you have to be a recognised apprentice. I checked. And there’s a time limit. When you put in the request, you can demand for the tests to take place within a time window. The minimum you can ask for is five days.’ Luna raised her eyebrows. ‘It’s within the deadline.’

‘Okay, that might be what the law
technically
says,’ Sonder said. ‘But no one actually does it.’

‘No rule says you can’t.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Sonder said. ‘You couldn’t get the trial agreements done.’

‘No rule saying you need those, either.’

‘You two are losing us,’ I said. Both Variam and Anne were looking puzzled. ‘What are you getting at?’

‘Those waiting lists Vari was talking about?’ Luna said. ‘They’re not for the tests. They’re for the meetings with the mages setting the trials. The reason it takes so long is that they need to agree on what each trial’s allowed to contain. If you skip that part, you can jump the queue.’

‘Yeah, except that there wouldn’t be any restrictions on what you got,’ Sonder said.

Luna shrugged. ‘Not like we’d be able to get much out of them if we negotiated it anyway.’

‘That’s crazy,’ Sonder said. ‘They could send
anything
at you! They could kill you!’

‘Meh,’ Luna said. ‘They pretty much never kill apprentices in those tests any more. Last one was more than ten years ago and that was only because he had a heart condition.’

‘Wait,’ Anne said. ‘That’s supposed to be good news?’

‘Is it really that much more dangerous than the stuff we do anyway?’ Luna asked.

‘All right.’ I held up a hand. ‘Let me think a second.’

The four of them quieted, looking at me. ‘Luna,’ I said after a moment. ‘You’ve got a lesson with Chalice tomorrow morning, right?’

Luna nodded.

‘Then I’ll come along with you. If she thinks you’re ready, then we’ll go ahead with your plan.’

‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ Sonder said.

‘Then please see if you can find anything better,’ I said. ‘For Luna, and for all of us. We don’t exactly have a lot of options here. You know a lot more mages who are experts on Council law than I do. If you can dig up anything that’d help us, we’d be very grateful.’

Sonder didn’t look happy, but he didn’t argue. ‘Vari,’ I said. ‘I’m guessing Landis’ll be going home after the party. Can you meet him there? Break the sponsorship transfer plan to him?’

‘Yeah,’ Variam said. He looked at Anne. ‘You’d better come too. He’s going to want to talk to you.’

‘Then that’s enough for tonight,’ I said. I was tired and having trouble concentrating. All of a sudden, I wanted to be on my own. ‘Let’s get some sleep.’

The others didn’t move. ‘What about you?’ Luna asked.

‘I’m going to be fighting the political angle with Talisid.’

‘With us,’ Variam said.

I sighed. ‘Yes, with you. Now come on. You’ve got things you should be doing.’

All four were reluctant, but I eventually got them moving, chivvying them out of the living room and down towards the storeroom and the small patch at the centre that had been cleared and box-warded for gates. Sonder was the most eager. Anne was the most reluctant; she lingered at the door and I think she would have stayed if Variam hadn’t been pressuring her to go. Luna went without protest, but she kept an eye on me, and I knew that she’d be expecting me tomorrow. It felt like a long time before the last gate closed and I was left alone in the storeroom.

I trailed back upstairs into the living room and dropped on to the sofa. All of a sudden, the energy that had kept me going through the discussion was gone.

Like all diviners, I’m a thinker. When I get a problem, my first instinct is to unpack it, holding it up and turning it around to look at it from different angles. Sometimes I see the answer instantly, but other times it needs more work, and that’s when I go to other people for advice. All the time I’m talking it over with them, only half of my mind is on the discussion. The other half is picking away at the problem, examining it in the light of their suggestions, waiting for the flash of insight that signals a solution. Sometimes it’s a half solution, sometimes it’s a full solution, but it’s rarely wrong. When I get that feeling, I know I’m on the right track.

But sometimes I don’t get that feeling at all.

Luna, Variam, Talisid and Sonder’s suggestions had been logical, and the courses of action we’d settled on made sense. I thought it could work. But I didn’t
know
it would work. And without that, I was feeling a lingering unease that wouldn’t go away. My limbs were cold, and I shivered. The weather outside was freezing, and even here in my room the heat didn’t seem to be winning.

Something cool nudged my hand. I looked up to see Hermes next to me, standing on the carpet. ‘I don’t know,’ I told him. ‘It might work. Maybe…’

Hermes gave me a questioning look.

‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m not sure.’ I shook my head and got to my feet. I felt off-balance, and over the years, I’ve learned that when that happens, there’s one person I should be talking to. ‘I’m going to Arachne’s. Want to come?’

Hermes blinked once.

I got my coat, then walked to the desk and took out my gate stone for Arachne’s lair. Despite the name, it wasn’t a stone but a piece of wood, old and weathered and carved with runes. I wasn’t expecting any trouble, but all the same, I looked into the futures in which I gated to Arachne’s lair. Down to the storeroom, through the portal and—

Ow. What the hell?

I looked again. Pain, violence. As I focused, the futures shifted. Combat, more violence … I pulled back, resetting myself, starting a path-walk, and this time I was paying full attention. What would happen if I used this gate stone, stepped out into Arachne’s ravine and stood there?