Fated

about what you did before you got this shop?’

‘Luna …’ There was a warning note in my voice.

Luna fell silent. When I looked up, though, she met my eyes, not backing down. ‘You’re better off staying away from this,’ I said at last. ‘Just knowing about these people can get you in trouble.’

Luna tilted her head. ‘I thought you said I was already in trouble?’

I hesitated. Mages have a policy of not discussing their business with outsiders. The Council wouldn’t be happy if they found I was telling this to Luna. On the other hand, the Council doesn’t like me anyway.

And besides, I’ve never really bought into the idea of keeping people ignorant for their own good. What you know can hurt you, but what you don’t know can hurt you a lot worse. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘What do you know about Dark mages?’

Luna curled her legs under her on the sofa. Her white fingers were clasped around a mug of tea, a faint wisp of steam drifting upwards. ‘I thought they were mages who went bad.’

‘No.’ I tried to figure out how to explain it. ‘Well … maybe. Dark mages follow a philosophy called the True Way. The True Way says that good and bad as we see it are conventions. Our ideas about good and evil come from customs and religions designed to benefit the people in power. Dark mages think that obeying them makes you a sheep. Like when you asked for that cube from that man today? A Dark mage would say you should have just taken it.’

‘You mean stealing it?’

‘A Dark mage would tell you that you only feel stealing is wrong because your parents brought you up that way. Right and wrong are just conventions, like which side of the road you drive on.’

Luna thought about it for a few seconds, then shook her head. ‘But he’d have called the police.’

I nodded. ‘That’s the bit they think matters. What stops people breaking the law is the threat of punishment, and the threat only means anything if there’s the power to enforce it. To a Dark mage, power is reality. The more power you have, the more you can shape the reality around you. Strength, cunning, influence, whatever, but the one thing they don’t tolerate is weakness. Dark mages believe weakness is a sin, something shameful. If you’re not strong enough to take what you want, it’s your fault.’

Luna frowned. ‘Oh.’

‘Do you understand?’

‘I suppose.’ Luna thought for a second. ‘I’ve heard people say stuff like that. I suppose they’ve got a point.’

I shook my head. ‘It’s not about having a point. Dark mages don’t say these things. They live them.’

Luna looked at me, and I knew she didn’t understand. ‘That man, Cinder,’ I said. ‘What do you think he would have done if he’d found you?’

Luna looked suddenly uneasy. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Whatever he wanted,’ I said. ‘He might have ignored you. He might have laughed and walked off. He might have raped you and left you bleeding on the ground. He might have taken you back to his mansion as a slave. And he wouldn’t think twice about doing any of those things.’

Luna stared. ‘And something else,’ I went on. ‘No other Dark mage would think twice about him doing any of those things either. If you can’t stop him, it’s your fault. Understand now?’

Luna’s eyes were wide, and I could tell I’d finally gotten through. ‘You know these people?’

‘Yes.’ Luna began to say something else but I shook my head. ‘Don’t ask me about it. Not now.’

Luna fell silent. The pause dragged out and became uncomfortable. ‘I should go home,’ Luna said at last. I nodded and rose.

I walked Luna out. She kept at arm’s length just like always, but there was a distance that hadn’t been there before. Over the past months, Luna had started to open up to me a little. Now all of a sudden she was drawing back.

Once she was gone, I locked the door with a sigh. I’d been trying to scare her, and I had. I didn’t like showing Luna that side of me but I knew the safest thing would be for her to stay away for a few days, at least until this business with Cinder was settled. But I had the feeling that it would be a lot longer than a few days before Luna called me again for advice.

Somehow that depressed me. I shook it off. No one likes guys who get sentimental.

I took the red crystal cube and put it somewhere very hard to find. Then I headed for my room. I’d been planning to make inquiries about the cube but Cinder’s reaction had changed all that. If just the sight of it was enough to make him try to kill me, I didn’t want to spread it around that I had it. Instead I’d keep it secret until the fuss had died down, and in the meantime I’d arrange for it to be thoroughly investigated by an expert in magical items … namely, me.

But first I needed to find out more about this Precursor relic that Lyle and Cinder were so interested in. And this time, I wasn’t going out empty-handed.

Being a diviner is all about being prepared; that was why I’d been so scared when Cinder had caught me napping. Diviners can’t do the flashy things that elemental mages can. We can’t fly or throw fire or disintegrate things. We aren’t any tougher or stronger than other men, and our magic gives us no power over the physical world. But what we do have is knowledge, and applied in the right way that can be some pretty impressive leverage.

I set about making sure I’d have something to apply that leverage to. I dressed in a warm shirt and jeans, then put on a pair of black running shoes before turning to the items scattered around my desk. My first choice was a crystal sphere the size of a marble with a fingernail’s worth of mist swirling inside – I dropped it into my right-hand coat pocket, checked to see that I could reach it quickly, then did the same with a small glass rod in the matching pocket on my left. Next was a packet of trail dust – my last one; I’d have to get some more. A tapering crystal wand about eight inches long clipped into my coat, then I filled the rest of my pockets with a general selection of