Taken

Anne sighed. “Everyone thinks it’s something really crazy. They think we’re being trained as his apprentices or we’re bonded to him or we go out and murder people on his orders or something. No one ever believes me when I tell them the truth.”

“What is it?”

“He gives us a place to stay,” Anne said. “That’s all, really.”

We reached an intersection and turned left down a long hallway. We were moving deeper into the mansion, and the sounds of the crowd were fading behind us. “But if you’re staying with him, you’re part of his household,” I said. “You might not be his apprentices but every mage is going to treat you as though you are.”

Anne was silent. “That’s it, isn’t it?” I said. “It’s for protection.”

“Jagadev . . .” Anne hesitated. “Mages . . . know about him. As long as we’re with him they won’t want to cause us any trouble.”

“Variam told you that, right?”

Anne glanced up at me, then back down at the floor.

“Was Variam the one who made the deal?”

Anne shook her head. “Jagadev came to us. It was when we were in London, after . . . He said he could make sure nobody else came after us.”

“And what does he get?” I asked. “What do you do for him?”

“Little things. Deliver messages, be around for gatherings. He’ll ask me for information but he won’t ask us to do anything dangerous.”

“Until now,” I said dryly.

Anne was quiet for a moment. “Jagadev didn’t make me come here,” she said at last. “I . . .” She stopped and looked in the direction of the wall. “He’s there.”

I glanced into the immediate future and confirmed it. “Okay,” I said and took a breath. “Let’s do this.” I walked through the doorway and into the next room. “Onyx,” I said, raising my voice. “Hi.”

Onyx moved like lightning. One moment he was standing facing the wall, the next he was turned towards me, slightly crouched, one hand extended towards my chest. A very faint hum sounded from his hand, and with my mage’s sight I could see the outline of the blade of force ready to be thrown. Looking into the future, I could see it streaking from his fingers and tearing through my chest in a spray of gore. I held quite still.

Then Anne stepped out next to me. Onyx’s eyes flicked to her but his hand didn’t shift. “Not going to say hello?” I said. My heart was racing and it took an effort to keep my voice casual.

Onyx’s eyes shifted between us but he didn’t answer. Dressed in black, he stood out against the old, musty room. Bookshelves made it look as though it had once been a library, but most were empty and the carpet smelt of dust. “Relax,” I said. I deliberately turned away from Onyx and walked to one of the shelves, taking Anne out of the line of fire. “I’m just here to talk.”

Onyx’s hand moved to track me, but he didn’t turn away from Anne. “Brought some protection?” he said.

“Protection?”

Onyx tilted his head towards Anne and gave me a thin smile. “I’ll kill her before she makes it three steps.”

I sighed. “Would you please quit the bullshit?”

Onyx held my gaze for a second longer, then lowered his hand, the force blade dissipating. “Okay, I’ll play. What do you want?”

“I figure you might be able to help me,” I said.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Here’s how it is. What Morden sent you here to do is the same thing I’m trying to do right now. Now I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but for today at least we’re on the same side and this’ll go a lot faster if we work together.”

Onyx curled his lip. “And what are you going to do?”

“I find things out,” I said. “It’s what I do. You, on the other hand, break things and kill people. I can do things you can’t. This is why mages cooperate.”

“If I want something from you,” Onyx said, “I’ll take it.”

“And that worked out so well for you last time, didn’t it?”

Onyx stared at me. “Let’s start small,” I said. “You’re thinking of cutting through that wall, right?”

Onyx’s eyes flicked to the wall to his right before he could catch himself. “What’s it to you?”

“It’ll set off the same alarm you triggered the last time you trashed this place. The tournament might be keeping the other mages busy, but not that busy.”

Onyx didn’t answer but I saw the future of him carving through the wall with his force magic waver and vanish. I hadn’t been able to see many details, but I’d seen enough to know that the reaction would have been instant: that same psychic scream that had come before. “My turn,” I said. “If you’re thinking of going digging, you’re looking for something. What is it?”

Onyx stared at me a moment longer, then gave a tiny shrug. “Bodies.”

I relaxed very slightly, though I didn’t let myself show it. To my left I could feel Anne watching, keeping silent. “So Morden thinks the missing apprentices are here in Fountain Reach,” I said. “Why?”

“You don’t need to know.”