Taken

“He didn’t tell you, huh?”

Onyx stared at me again. He had a flat unblinking way of fixing his eyes on someone that was really creepy, like a predator picking out a target. “Why here?” I said.

“Sealed room.”

“Then let me find a way in.” I moved to the bookcases, studying them.

The wards over Fountain Reach damped all kinds of scrying magic, reducing the range at which I could use my divination. To a new diviner, they’d probably be crippling. But I’m not a new diviner and I hadn’t wasted the free time I’d had since getting here. Since I couldn’t see as far into the future, I put the energy I would have spent into searching a larger range of short-term futures instead, and as I looked at the bookshelves a thousand future copies of myself studied them in a thousand different ways. I stepped back. “That one.”

Onyx gave me a look. “There’s a way in behind it,” I said, giving it a nod. “The bookcase isn’t fixed to the floor. Move it sideways.”

Onyx didn’t react. “I know you can do it,” I said. “I’ve seen force mages lift ten times that weight.”

“You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Fine. Please could you help move that bookcase so we can see what’s on the other side?”

Onyx looked as though he was trying to think of a reason to say no, but after a moment he grudgingly twitched a hand. With a creaking, scraping noise the ten-foot bookcase rose and pivoted in midair. Dust bloomed around us and books toppled and fell to the carpet with thumps but the bookcase didn’t wobble, held by bands of force. As it twisted away, a door was revealed in the wall. It was faded and looked ancient. “It’s locked,” I said. “Give me a second and I’ll—”

Onyx made a flicking motion and the door burst inwards with a crunch of splintering wood, leaving the lock still attached to the door frame. Beyond were stairs descending into darkness and a clattering sound echoed up to us as the bits of door went bouncing down the stairs to hit the bottom with a double thud. “Or you could just do that,” I said.

Onyx walked forward and down, disappearing into the gloom.

I waited for Onyx’s footsteps to fade away, then looked at Anne. “Might be safer if you stayed out here.”

Anne thought for a second and shook her head. “I’d rather go with you.”

*  *  *

The basement at the bottom of the stairs was pitch-dark and silent. The air was dead and foul-smelling; there was obviously no ventilation. I clicked on my torch and its bright white beam revealed benches, shelves, strange equipment. Beakers and boxes were piled around the room and an open doorway led farther in. There was no sign of Onyx.

“What is this place?” Anne whispered.

“Looks like an old lab,” I whispered back. Something about the basement made me keep my voice down. I moved to one of the tables and studied the contents, then angled my torch downwards.

“Do you think anyone’s here?” Anne whispered.

I moved the splash of light from my torch across the floor. The stone foundations were covered by a thick layer of dust, broken only by the two halves of the door. Onyx’s footprints were clearly visible leading through the doorway and there were no others. “We’re the first ones to set foot in this place for years.”

“So this isn’t where the apprentices have gone . . .” Anne said, half to herself. She moved to one of the pieces of equipment resting against the wall. It looked like a giant angled casket made in black iron with odd-shaped pieces protruding. “What are these things?”

“Research equipment,” I said. The table held nothing but long-corroded items, and I moved to the shelves. “For magical experiments.”

Anne was studying the casket. “I’ve never seen any that look like this.”

“You would have sixty years ago.” I focused on the immediate futures of myself searching the shelves and saw a cluster of futures around the right corner where I found something. I moved closer and narrowed it down to a cardboard box on the bottom shelf. “Standard doctrine in the first half of the twentieth century was to use wrought iron for lab gear.”

Anne started towards me, then paused, looking towards the archway. “Onyx is coming back.”

I opened the box to reveal a stack of dusty papers and notebooks. I lifted them out and gave them to Anne. “Here. Take these and wait upstairs.”

“But—”

“I’ll catch you up. Quickly.”

Anne hesitated, then obeyed. I replaced the lid on the box and gave the room a final quick scan to see if I’d missed anything. A moment later I felt the presence behind me.

Onyx was standing in the doorway. His dark clothes faded into the blackness beyond and the only parts of him that caught the light were his hands and face, pale and still. The torchlight cast his face in shadow and I could see the glint of his eyes as he watched me, waiting.

“Find anything?” I asked.

Onyx said nothing, and something about his eyes and stance sent a chill through me. I was suddenly aware of how alone we were. Nobody else knew we were down here and all the mages were at the tournament. There was Anne and that was why I’d sent her upstairs, but . . .

“Why’d you leave it behind?” Onyx said.

“Leave what?”