Fated

He would have disagreed. But think for a moment. How did you eventually survive?’

‘On my own.’

‘Exactly.’ Morden pointed at me. ‘You didn’t waste time trying to convince Richard that you were right and he was wrong. You broke away with your own abilities.’

‘I know what I did.’ A part of me remembered that I shouldn’t piss Morden off, but it was getting harder and harder. ‘I was there.’

Morden simply watched. I took a deep breath, and slowly regained my cool. ‘What are you trying to say?’ I finally asked.

‘I’m simply pointing out the obvious. You survived and escaped because you were powerful enough, which is, of course, what this is really all about. If you hadn’t, none of your beliefs would have mattered. Certainly the Council doesn’t seem to share your views about, well,’ Morden raised an eyebrow, ‘anything, really. I’m sure you know they’re never going to accept you. They didn’t employ you for this job until they’d exhausted literally every other alternative, even though you were more than qualified. So, once again,’ Morden looked at me pleasantly, ‘you’re an enemy of the Council; you live on your wits and your power. Effectively, you’re a Dark mage in all but name – except for one thing.’

Morden raised his eyebrows as if inviting me to ask what it was. I didn’t. ‘A true Dark mage has purpose,’ Morden went on once it was clear I wasn’t going to speak. ‘Those who lack purpose are pawns to those who do not. Which brings us back to our original question. What do you want?’

‘What do you want?’

Morden smiled. ‘I want the fateweaver, of course. That’s hardly a secret. The question is who you want to get it.’

I started to answer and realised suddenly that I didn’t know. I’d been so busy manoeuvring between the different factions over the last two days that I’d never stopped to think of who I actually wanted to win. And why should I have thought about it? It wasn’t up to me.

Except now I did stop to think, I realised it was up to me. Enough of the pieces of the puzzle had ended up in my hands that I could make a difference. Morden was right. Until now I’d just been reacting, being pushed around by one faction or another. If I was going to get out of this in one piece, I’d have to stop reacting and start acting. And that meant figuring out exactly what I wanted.

I sat thinking for five minutes. Morden didn’t rush me, waiting patiently while I worked out what I was going to say.

‘What are you offering?’ I said at last.

‘Consider the position that of intelligence officer,’ Morden said. ‘I think it’s a role to which you’d be well suited.’

‘What’s in it for me?’

‘Come now, Verus. I know money doesn’t motivate you.’

‘I wasn’t talking about money.’

‘Ah.’ Morden tilted his head. ‘Well, for one thing, you’d get to stay alive. You listed that as your primary goal, I believe.’

‘You’re going to have to do better than that.’

‘You are aware I could kill you at any time?’

‘Very,’ I said. ‘But you haven’t, which means at the moment you’ve got a reason not to. You could tell me to follow your orders or die, and I’d have to do as you said. But threatening a diviner doesn’t work out very well in the long run. Not if you’re planning to rely on the information he gives you.’

Morden studied me for a moment. I knew from looking into the future that he wasn’t going to follow through on his threat, but something in his eyes still made my skin crawl. Suddenly he smiled. ‘Very well, then. What I can offer you is safety. As long as you’re working for me, neither you nor any associates you bring with you will be harmed, by either side. I think you’ll find my security quite impressive. You’ll also have whatever you can find from the site, bar the fateweaver itself. Of course, your team members will have their own shares.’

‘Team members?’

‘So then.’ Morden leaned back in his chair. ‘Tell me how to open that relic.’

I felt the futures shift into a series of forks. I took a long look at the options ahead of me, and saw the consequences of answering one way or the other. ‘With a key,’ I said at last.

‘What does the key look like?’

‘A cube of red crystal.’

‘How does it open the door?’

‘You place the cube in the statue’s hand.’

‘Do you have it?’

I paused. ‘Yes.’

A beat, then Morden nodded, and I felt the flicker of a minor spell. A second later, the far door opened and a young man walked in.

He couldn’t have been older than his early twenties, but no one looking at him would call him a boy. He was tall and slender, smooth-moving in a way that suggested speed, and his eyes were cold. I’d never met him, but I knew exactly what he was: a Dark Chosen, a selected apprentice. He would be fast, ruthless, a combat veteran despite his youth, deadly with his magic or without it. He was holding something in one hand, and as he came and stopped by Morden’s chair I saw what it was. It was Luna’s red crystal cube, the same one I’d left locked away in my shop.