Burned

3

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. The sun was shining down out of a cold blue sky, and puffy white clouds drifted high above. There were six days until my execution order went through.

Luna and I sat at a back table in one of the cafés along Upper Street in Islington. Despite the time of day, there was a good scattering of people. Islington is an odd, mixed sort of place: from walking the streets you’d get the feeling that it’s middle class and rich, yet if you look at the numbers, it’s got one of the highest poverty rates in the country. The other people in the café didn’t seem to have much to worry about: they looked like affluent young urban professionals, chatting and laughing over their morning coffees. But maybe there was more to them than met the eye. Just like us.

‘Do you guys usually have your lessons in here?’ I asked Luna. I didn’t need to keep my voice down; Luna had picked us a table against the far wall, a good distance from the other customers.

‘Sort of,’ Luna said. ‘We switch around.’

‘I still can’t believe that you have magic lessons in a café,’ I said. It wasn’t news; I’d kept close tabs on Chalice and Luna during the early stages of their relationship, and I still went out of my way to check in with Luna after lessons even now. But it felt weird all the same.

‘It’s not as though our magic’s visible.’

‘What if something weird happens?’

‘Doesn’t seem to.’

I sighed. ‘Must be nice being so lucky that you don’t have to worry about consequences.’

Movement in the futures caught my eye and I looked up. Chalice was about to walk in. ‘How much have you told her?’ I asked Luna.

‘Just that there was a problem and that you’d be coming,’ Luna said. ‘I figured we shouldn’t really be discussing it over the phone.’

‘Good.’

Chalice came walking through the door, saw us and turned in our direction. She blended in with the morning crowd; a professional-looking Indian woman dressed neatly in dark winter clothes. ‘Hello, Luna,’ she said with a smile as she reached our table. She pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘Verus, it’s been a while.’

‘I know,’ I said with a nod. ‘Everything work out with Yarris?’

‘Yes,’ Chalice said. ‘Thank you for your help with that.’

Chalice is a new addition to my and Luna’s social circle. Earlier in the year, after months of searching for a reputable Light or independent chance mage to act as Luna’s teacher, I’d finally given in to Luna’s requests to try something riskier. Chalice was a Dark mage who had approached Luna on her own initiative. I hadn’t trusted her then and I didn’t fully trust her now, but she’d kept up her end of the deal – she’d started teaching Luna twice a week, and the results had been impressive.

But the relationship was a two-way street. In exchange for her lessons, Chalice had asked that I help her out when she needed it. In a funny way, the fact that Chalice had demanded that had actually made me feel better – I wouldn’t have trusted her if she’d claimed to be doing it for free. Equivalent exchange, on the other hand … that I could believe. The favours she’d been asking had mostly been investigations, digging up information on other mages. Most seemed to relate to Chalice’s past in India, but I hadn’t yet been able to ferret out what her long-term goals were. Maybe I’d learn something more today.

A waiter approached. Chalice ordered masala chai, while Luna asked for a pot of red tea. The waiter turned to me; I shook my head and he withdrew. ‘The tea here is quite good,’ Chalice said.

‘Maybe another time.’

Chalice glanced sideways at Luna, then turned back to me. ‘So I understand there’s a problem.’

‘I’ll get to the point,’ I said. ‘You’ve been teaching Luna for nearly a year now.’

Chalice nodded.

‘Do you think she’s ready to take her journeyman tests?’

Chalice considered very briefly. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I think so.’

I sat back slightly, glancing through the futures in which I interrogated Chalice more closely. I couldn’t see any futures in which I reacted to signs of deception. Chalice looked back at me with her dark eyes. As far as I could tell, she was telling the truth. Well, that’s it, I decided. We’re doing this.

‘I can give you the breakdown,’ Chalice offered.

I shook my head. ‘If you say she’s ready, she’s ready.’

Luna was looking between us, eyes bright. ‘Okay, Luna,’ I said to Luna. ‘You win.’

‘So this is something you’ve decided to move forward with?’ Chalice asked.

‘Looks like,’ I said. ‘You free to give Luna some coaching?’

‘That should be possible,’ Chalice said. ‘When are you hoping to schedule the tests for? Next summer?’

‘More like the end of this week,’ Luna said.

Chalice paused. ‘I’m sorry?’

The waiter reappeared with a tray. Chalice fell quiet as cups and teapots were offloaded, but I could feel her eyes on me, questioning. The waiter gave us a chirpy ‘Let me know if there’s anything else you need!’ and disappeared.

‘There’s been a bit of a change in schedule,’ I said once the waiter was out of earshot. ‘When we said “Are you free for coaching?” we meant now. As in, right now.’

Chalice gave me a thoughtful look. ‘Perhaps you should explain.’

I filled Chalice in, leaving out the parts that didn’t directly relate to me or to Luna. Chalice listened silently, taking an occasional sip from her cup. The scents of the chai and Luna’s own tea mixed together, warm and pleasant. ‘So, like I said,’ I finished, ‘time’s an issue.’

Chalice was silent, and I had the feeling that she was calculating just how dangerous this would be. ‘Can you help?’ Luna asked. ‘I could really use the practice.’

I felt the futures settle as Chalice made her decision. ‘Yes,’ Chalice said. ‘That should be possible.’ She looked at Luna. ‘Are you sure about the five-day rule?’

Luna nodded.

‘Then we don’t have much time.’ Chalice tapped her nails on the table, then gave a nod. ‘All right. I’ll clear my next few days. I’ve a prior engagement tonight, but starting tomorrow, we’ll train full-time.’

I saw Luna relax a little. ‘Thanks.’

‘Which leaves the question of my payment.’

I sighed. Saw that coming. ‘Can I agree to owe you a favour?’

‘From the sounds of it, right now, you and Luna are about the worst credit risk possible.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Look, I’d happily pay you in cash, but you already turned that down. The deal was an alliance. Favour for favour.’

‘If you’re about to be removed from the country or worse, you won’t be in much of a position to pay that favour back.’

‘Fine. What are you angling for?’

Chalice studied me for a few seconds before answering. ‘I want to know what your old master is looking for, and what he plans to do with it.’

I stared at Chalice. She picked up her cup of chai and took a sip.

‘Are you serious?’ I said.

Chalice looked at me.

‘Why?’

‘Call it curiosity.’

‘Looking for what? And how do you even know about this?’

‘There are rumours that Drakh is in the process of assembling a retrieval team,’ Chalice said. ‘I don’t know what he’s attempting to retrieve, and I don’t know its purpose. I would like to know both of those things.’

‘This is absolutely the worst possible time for me to go and investigate something like this.’

Chalice shrugged.

‘There is no realistic way I’m going to be able to get that done in five days,’ I said. ‘Maybe not even fifty days. You’re talking about national-level intelligence. If I just try to waltz over there and find this out with no preparation, I’m going to get killed. The cost-benefit doesn’t add up.’

Chalice tapped her fingers. ‘You may have a point.’

I sat and waited. Chalice looked off into space, frowning slightly. Luna looked between the two of us. ‘How about this, then?’ Chalice said. ‘If the opportunity arises during the coming week to discover what I want to know, you’ll find it out and relay the information to me. Otherwise, you’ll owe me a favour.’

I looked at Chalice, trying not to let my surprise show. That was a much better deal. ‘That … seems fair.’

‘It’s agreed, then.’ Chalice drank the last of her tea and straightened. ‘Luna, I’ll meet you tomorrow at Barnet. Early would be best. Nine o’clock?’

Luna nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Well.’ Chalice turned back to me. ‘I’ve got some preparations to make. Keep me up to date if anything develops.’

‘I will,’ I said. Chalice rose and left. She went to the counter to pay, then walked out into the street.

‘I wonder why she wants to know about that?’ Luna said with a frown.

I kept my eyes on where Chalice had disappeared. ‘Have you ever told Chalice anything about the missions we do for Talisid? About our group?’

‘No.’

‘Anything at all?’

‘I do know what “secret” means. What are you getting at?’

‘Out of all the Light and independent mages in Britain, our group probably knows more than anyone else about Richard and what he’s up to,’ I said. ‘It strikes me as a funny coincidence that Chalice would just happen to approach us.’

‘Everyone knows you used to be Richard’s apprentice,’ Luna said.

‘Yes. But if Chalice has looked – and she has – then she’d also know that I hate the guy.’

‘You think she knows what we’ve been doing?’

I frowned. ‘A better question is: why does she want to know more? Trying to poke into Richard’s business is playing with fire. I wonder why she’d take that risk …?’

‘You’re the one who keeps telling us that Dark mages are always plotting against each other,’ Luna said.

‘Yeah,’ I said. Inwardly, I was wondering something else. When I’d first met Chalice, she’d implied that the only reason she’d wanted this alliance was for the information I could give her as a diviner. I’d never been absolutely sure that she was telling the whole truth about that. Did she have some agenda of her own when it came to Richard? Maybe that had been the real reason she’d approached Luna …

‘Well,’ Luna said, ‘time’s ticking. Think it’s time to go knock on the Council’s front door and tell them I want a journeyman test.’

‘How do you do it?’

‘Formal request delivered by hand to the dean of the apprentice programme,’ Luna said. She grinned. ‘I found out where the guy lives. Want to come along?’

‘I think it’s best if I’m visibly involved with this as little as possible,’ I said.

That wiped the smile off Luna’s face. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Right.’ She paused. ‘You’re going to see those Council members, right?’

‘Trust me, I’m really not interested in committing suicide. I’m going to do everything I can to block this thing.’

Luna searched my face for a second, then nodded and got up. ‘Okay. Wish me luck.’

‘Don’t think that’s something you’re short of.’

Luna headed to Westminster, while I returned home. My shop’s closed on Sundays, and I was in no mood to open it anyway. I made some calls.

Getting through to Talisid took a while, and when I finally did, there wasn’t much news. He’d put out feelers to Spire and Undaaris and confirmed that both were supposed to be returning to the country by this evening, but neither had responded. He promised to get back to me as soon as they did. I cut the connection, not feeling much better.

Variam had better news. I looked into the futures in which I contacted him and found that he was already in the process of introducing Anne to Landis. It seemed as though it would go better without my interfering, so I decided to leave well enough alone. In the process of finding that out, I also noticed that someone was coming to call. A woman, and a mage … a stranger, though. I couldn’t sense any immediate danger, but there was no point being careless. I checked the defences and went downstairs to wait. The bell rang a minute later. I waited twenty seconds, then walked out into the shop and unlocked the front door.

The woman standing outside had European features and long black hair, and was wearing a black fur coat. She looked forty or so, slender, with slight crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes. ‘Mage Verus?’ she said as she saw me.

‘That’s me,’ I said. I didn’t take my eyes off her. She was standing with her feet together, slightly stiff. She looked nervous.

‘I have some important information for you,’ the woman said.

‘Okay.’

‘We should discuss it in private.’

‘Okay.’

The woman looked down and fumbled in her handbag. Her movements were nervous and jerky. She pulled out a small white card and handed it to me. ‘Here.’

I inspected the card without touching it. It was a business card for a nearby hotel. A room number was written on it in black pen. ‘What exactly is this?’ I asked.

‘It’s the—’

‘The St Pancras Hotel, yes, it says on the card. Why are you showing it to me?’

‘We’ve scheduled a meeting there for two o’clock.’

I stared at the woman.

‘Okay?’ the woman said. ‘Do you understand?’

‘What exactly is this important information that you need to share?’

‘We can’t discuss that here,’ the woman said. ‘I promise all of your questions will be answered at the meeting.’

‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen.’

‘But you need to—’

‘Lady, I have never seen you before. I have no reason to listen to you and no reason to trust you. If you think I’m going to come to your meeting, you’re in for a disappointment.’

‘But this is important!’

‘Then let’s hear it.’

‘I can’t—’

‘You can’t discuss that here,’ I said with a sigh. This was getting repetitive. ‘Who are you, again?’

‘I’m sorry,’ the woman said. ‘I don’t feel comfortable identifying myself to you.’

I looked at the woman in disbelief, then shook my head and started cycling through futures. People react differently to the sound of their own name than to someone else’s. It’s theoretically possible to brute-force these kind of problems by doing one syllable at a time, but it’s time-consuming and quite frankly it’s not worth the effort. It’s much faster to try your mental library of every name that might apply to the person first. One reaction jumped out almost immediately, but the name was unfamiliar. But I must have heard it somewhere if I could be saying it … where had it been? Oh, right. Last night.

Wait. Really?

‘I promise you, it’s absolutely essential that we have this discussion,’ the woman said. ‘If you—’

‘Symmaris,’ I said.

Symmaris jumped. ‘How did you—?’

I just looked at her with raised eyebrows. I always find it odd when I get these reactions. People come here because I’m a diviner, and then they’re surprised when I know more than they tell me. They never seem to think that divination could also work on them.

‘Before you do anything,’ Symmaris began, ‘I think you should be aware that I didn’t come here alone. And there are other people who know where I am. If I don’t return they’ll know why.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ I said. ‘What is wrong with you?’

‘I think that, given your reputation, some precautions aren’t excessive.’

‘And I think that after you sent a bunch of thugs to try and break my bones last night, you aren’t in any position to be lecturing me about precautions.’

‘What?’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘So you didn’t send Mr Wolf after me with a couple of goons?’

‘No.’

I looked at her.

‘Of course I didn’t,’ Symmaris said. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Right,’ I said sceptically. I wasn’t feeling terribly well-disposed towards Symmaris right now. ‘So now that we’ve been properly introduced, how about you tell me what this message is.’

‘I told you, I’m not discussing it out here.’

I sighed. ‘Fine,’ I said after a moment. ‘You can come into the shop. Briefly.’

Symmaris drew back. ‘I’m not going into your home with you alone.’

‘For the love of God. Are you serious?’

‘You just told me you believe that I’m out to get you,’ Symmaris said. ‘Given that, I think I’m being very reasonable not to isolate myself with you.’

I stared at Symmaris in disbelief, then shook my head and began to close the door. ‘Wait!’ Symmaris said. ‘The meeting is going to be at the hotel!’

‘I’ve known you for less than ten minutes and you’re already annoying me. I really don’t figure on spending the afternoon with you.’

‘But you have to—!’

I shut the door in Symmaris’s face and walked back to the counter.

There was a knocking on the door. ‘Mage Verus!’ The voice was muffled.

I ignored her and checked the compartment below the counter. The 1911 was still there in its hiding place. I glanced through the futures. No immediate danger, but she didn’t seem to be going away …

Knock knock knock. ‘Mage Verus!’

‘Door’s open,’ I called.

Silence.

‘In or out, Symmaris.’ I dropped down on to the chair behind the counter and leaned back. ‘Your choice.’

There was a pause. I waited. Eventually, the door creaked open. Symmaris took a small step inside and looked around the shop, one hand on the door.

‘Close it behind you, will you?’ I said.

She didn’t move. ‘I should remind you that there are people who know exactly where I am.’

‘Let me get this straight,’ I said. ‘You seriously think I’m going to murder you? In broad daylight in the middle of Camden at eleven-thirty on a Sunday morning? If you’re this paranoid, why did you even come?’

‘I wouldn’t have had to if—’

‘Close the door, will you? There’s a draught.’

Symmaris hesitated, then – with obvious reluctance – closed the door behind her. She turned the handle a few times both before and after she did so, checking to see if it would lock. I rolled my eyes.

Symmaris walked forward. She was wearing an impractical-looking pair of high heels that made her sway slightly as she walked, and as she took each step, the tips of the heels clicked on my floor. I stayed sitting in the chair, leaning back against the wall. It was a bad posture for responding to attacks, but I’d already scanned the futures and I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. People who are considering violence have a distinctive signature in their futures, and from Symmaris’s potential responses, I’d pegged her as the kind who ran away from danger rather than towards it.

Symmaris stopped some distance from the counter. ‘I tried calling your shop,’ she said. ‘It didn’t go through.’

‘I don’t keep the landline plugged in.’ Any number that Symmaris would likely have found would have been a fake one, but I didn’t see any need to inform her of that.

‘You could leave a mobile number.’

‘You’re under the mistaken impression that I want to be answering phone calls from random strangers.’

‘The number I found was from the Council list.’

‘I don’t want to be answering phone calls from the Council, either.’

‘You can’t just do that.’

‘I don’t see why not,’ I said. ‘People know where my shop is. If they can’t be bothered to make the trip to talk to me in person, then it probably wasn’t anything very important.’

‘Well, maybe if you’d been properly listed I wouldn’t have had to ask Redman to go talk to you!’

‘I notice that even you don’t call him “Wolf”,’ I said dryly. ‘But yes, I’m glad you brought up that subject. Why don’t you explain to me why you tried to get those nice young men to “send me a message” by breaking my bones?’

‘I didn’t,’ Symmaris insisted. ‘Yes, he was supposed to be delivering a message, but he was only supposed to talk to you. I specifically told him to talk. And I didn’t tell him anything about bringing anyone else.’

‘Well, congratulations.’ I leaned forward off the wall and clasped my hands in front of me on the desk. ‘You’ve got my attention.’

Symmaris looked at me, then away. She took a step closer to the shelves at the centre of the shop and started nervously fiddling with the crystal balls. ‘I know about Drakh’s operation,’ she said.

‘Oh God.’ I looked skywards. ‘Not you as well.’

‘I’m not going to ask what he’s looking for,’ Symmaris said quickly. ‘I don’t know anything about that.’

‘That makes two of us.’

‘And I’m not saying anything about … any decisions you might or might not have made about getting involved in that.’ Symmaris carefully didn’t look at me. She picked up one of the crystal balls, swapping it with its neighbour so that they were lined up in ascending order of size. She paused, then pushed it a tiny fraction back to bring it into line. ‘I understand it would be very difficult to say no.’

‘I’m not working for Richard.’

‘But you can’t do it.’ Symmaris seemed to brace herself and turned back to me. ‘We can’t afford that. We absolutely can’t afford that. You know how much power Morden’s been getting. He hasn’t even had his seat for a year and he’s more influential than anyone else on the Junior Council. If this keeps going, he’s going to have a Senior Council seat himself. Whatever Drakh is doing, it’s going to increase the power of the Dark mages even further. It can’t go through.’

‘And what exactly do you expect me to do about it?’

‘Don’t help Drakh,’ Symmaris said. ‘Stay out of this.’

‘That’s pretty much exactly what I’m doing.’

‘I mean it,’ Symmaris insisted. ‘You can’t get involved.’

‘I am not getting involved.’

‘You don’t have to pretend. Obviously, you’re in a difficult position, but…’

‘Oh, good God.’ I leaned back and put my hands over my eyes. ‘You’re not listening to a single word I say, are you?’

Symmaris was silent.

I dropped my hands and looked at her. ‘What is it going to take to convince you that I’m not working for Richard?’

‘Put yourself in Keeper custody,’ Symmaris said instantly. ‘Just until all this is over.’

I stared at her. ‘That,’ I said at last, ‘is possibly the stupidest suggestion I have ever heard.’

‘It’s the only way. Look, no one is going to believe you’re not involved with Drakh.’

‘Apparently not, if they’re all like you.’

‘It’s the best way to prove your good intentions. I mean, if you did that it would be physically impossible to—’

‘I am not putting myself into custody,’ I said clearly.

‘Then leave,’ Symmaris said. ‘Go to another country, a shadow realm, something like that. Somewhere completely removed from here until this all dies down.’

‘I really do not have time for this right now.’

‘It’s the only way! If you’re not going to let the Keepers take you in, then you need to prove that you’re not involved.’

‘Prove to who?’

‘To the Light mages,’ Symmaris said. ‘Look, you don’t understand. Tensions are very high right now. It’s a very dangerous situation. There are some people who think they need to fight. Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, they’re going to think you are, even if no one tells them to.’

‘Then maybe you should go back and explain to them that I’m not doing anything wrong,’ I said. ‘My leaving the country or going into custody is not going to happen. But I’d do either of those things before getting involved in any way with Richard Drakh. Understand?’

Symmaris didn’t answer.

‘I said, do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ Symmaris said unwillingly.

‘Then I would appreciate it very much if you could go back to your bosses, or your associates, or whoever these “people” that you’re so concerned about are, and tell them what I’ve just told you. They leave me alone, I’ll leave them alone. That’s how my relationship with the Council has gone for most of my life, and frankly, I think it’s worked pretty well so far. All right?’

Symmaris didn’t meet my eyes.

‘All right?’ I repeated.

‘Okay,’ Symmaris said. ‘I’ll tell them.’

‘Good. Is there anything else?’

Symmaris shook her head.

‘Then, if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.’

‘All right,’ Symmaris said. She walked to the door, glancing over her shoulder. I could tell from her stance that her shoulder-blades were tense, and I wondered if she was expecting an attack on the way out. She opened the door, letting a final gust of cold air into the shop, then shut it behind her.

I sat at the counter with a frown, tapping my fingers on the wooden surface. This was the third time inside twenty-four hours that someone had brought up what Richard was doing. And if both Chalice and Symmaris knew, it was a safe bet that soon everyone else would too.

It bothered me that I’d had to learn about this from them. I’d told Luna only a couple of hours ago that our group knew more about Richard than anyone else. It was starting to look as though I’d overestimated. It was true that we hadn’t run any active operations for a few weeks. Maybe something had changed …

No. There should have been signs. I got up and headed upstairs, then once I was back in my room, I started going through my papers. Most of the notes we had on Richard were political. Details of his alliances with Dark mages, rumours on his alliance with Morden. But there had been something …

There. Tucked away inside a red folder were three sheets of paper, cracked and dirty. I pulled them out and skimmed them: the writing was in Arabic, but there was a translation paperclipped to the back. We’d brought the sheets back from Syria at the beginning of the year. The rubbings on the paper were inscriptions from some kind of storage box. Richard had taken the box, and whatever had been inside. It hadn’t been the only time, either; we’d learned a couple of months later that he’d made another trip to a location just a few hundred miles away in Turkey.

We’d spent some time trying to figure out just what Richard had been after. It had been an odd anomaly: nearly everything else Richard had been doing seemed to relate to gaining political power in Britain. Why would he be suddenly interested in old Middle Eastern artefacts? There was nothing strange about him paying attention to these kinds of archaeological projects – a lot of mages do that; you never know when something useful is going to turn up – but Richard’s activities seemed weirdly specific. It was as though he was looking for something, and that worried me. The box in question had apparently dated back to a Byzantine magical tradition called the Heraclians, who’d been heavily associated with magical creatures, but we hadn’t been able to learn why Richard would care.

I shook my head and replaced the folder, then shut the drawer. This wasn’t my priority right now. I needed to survive this death sentence; once that was done, then maybe I could worry about Richard. What I should be worrying about was the fact that a significant number of Light mages apparently believed that I was helping Richard. The attack last night might not be the only one.

I wondered if Symmaris would be able to convince them I was telling the truth. Somehow, I doubted it. She didn’t strike me as an especially reliable ally.

It wasn’t until after sunset that Variam rang. ‘Hey, Alex.’ He sounded tired. ‘It’s done.’

‘You put it through?’

‘Just got back to Edinburgh. Been a long day.’

‘How did it go?’

‘Well, we found the dean,’ Variam said. ‘He, uh, wasn’t expecting visitors. We had to do some convincing, but it worked out. We put in the petition for Landis to take over as sponsors for me and Anne. Landis knows the dean from way back and he smoothed it over. He promised it’d be done by the end of the week.’

‘That had better be in calendar-speak, not politician-speak. Because if Friday rolls around and they say, “Oh, sorry, something’s come up, we’ll have it done by Monday.”…’

‘Yeah, we’re on it,’ Variam said. ‘We were talking about—’ There was a commotion in the background and Variam addressed someone away from the phone. ‘I said I’d tell him!’

‘Vari?’

‘I think Luna wants to talk to you,’ Variam said. ‘Talk soon, all right?’

‘Okay.’

There were sounds of movement, followed by a clunk, then Luna’s voice. ‘Alex?’

‘Hey, Luna,’ I said. ‘Please tell me you didn’t aggravate anyone important.’

‘Well, it wasn’t like we had a choice. The guy wouldn’t let us in, and…’

I sighed. ‘Did you get a date for your test?’

‘Yeah. My journeyman test is this Friday at ten.’

I let myself relax a little. ‘Good.’

‘Listen, I kind of need to go,’ Luna said. ‘There’s some social thing that Landis is going to. There are mages who do stuff with the programme committees, and Variam said … well, anyway. You’ll stop by to check in with Chalice, right?’

‘I will.’

‘Okay. Oh, wait, just a sec.’

There was another rustle. I waited a few seconds, then I heard Anne’s soft voice. ‘Hello?’

‘Hey, you,’ I said. ‘Did they treat you okay?’

‘It wasn’t too bad,’ Anne said. ‘At least they listened.’

‘Going to the party?’

‘I don’t think that’d be a good idea.’

‘You don’t have to let them shut you out all the time,’ I said. ‘I know the Light mages don’t trust you, but…’

‘Isn’t the idea for Vari and Luna to make a good impression?’ Anne said. ‘I don’t think having me around would help.’

I sighed. She was probably right. Anne is one of the few mages I know that the Council trusts even less than me. ‘What about you?’ Anne asked.

‘What? Oh. Still waiting on Talisid. I need to be there if he calls.’

Anne hesitated. ‘I could come over.’

‘Eh,’ I said. ‘It’s okay. You look after yourself.’

‘Will you be okay on your own? Luna told me about last night…’

‘I’m used to it. Safe trip back.’

‘You stay safe too.’

With Anne’s, Variam’s and Luna’s problems settled for the moment, I was at a loose end. I still needed to prepare some escape routes just in case worst came to worst, but looking into the future in which I sat at home and did nothing, I could tell that the chances of Talisid calling were a possibility but not a certainty. Which was pretty much the worst possible result from an informational point of view. If Talisid wasn’t going to get in touch, I could leave the house and spend the evening shopping for gate stones. If he was going to get in touch, I could narrow down the time he’d do it and get other stuff done before and after. But with the futures uncertain, I just had to sit around and wait. It’s like that annoying situation where you’re getting a package delivered, but you don’t know when, and you can’t leave the house in case the guy shows up while you’re out. Or at least it would be, if postal delivery companies were in the habit of sending you mail telling you how long you’ve got to live. With nothing else to do, I waited.

I’ve never liked waiting. It would probably surprise most people – from an outside perspective, waiting is something I do a lot. But there’s a difference between waiting for something you’re in control of, and waiting for something you’re not. There was absolutely nothing I could do to influence Talisid’s actions or the decisions of the people he spoke to. If he rang me up and told me that it was a no-go, that the votes weren’t getting changed, then that was it. I had no illusions that I could stand up to the Keepers if they seriously decided to hunt me down. I’d have to flee the country or die.

I found myself wishing that I’d taken Anne up on her offer. It was selfish – there wouldn’t have been anything for her to do except sit around, and she probably had more important things to do with her time. Still, it would make me feel better.

I looked into the future yet again to see if I could catch some snatches of conversation from the possibilities where Talisid called me, and couldn’t see any. Someone else was going to show up before I could wait long enough for there to be a realistic chance of Talisid calling. I looked towards the door and waited until I heard a rustle of movement. ‘I know you’re there, Hermes.’

A black nose poked around the edge of the door, followed by a vulpine muzzle. Hermes walked into the room with a leisurely sort of air. ‘You know, one of these days I’m going to have to figure out how you keep getting in,’ I said. ‘If you’re blinking to the spot in the storeroom, how are you getting through a locked door?’

Hermes gave me a quizzical look.

‘It’s not that I mind you showing up. Though you might be safer giving me a wider berth for a while.’

Hermes sat back on his hind legs.

I shook my head. ‘Why do you stick around? I know we feed you, but it’s not like you need it. And you help out with things like last night. It’s not as though you owe me anything. I do appreciate it, but … why?’

Hermes tilted his head, then got up, walked to the kitchen and looked back.

I looked at Hermes curiously. ‘You want me to follow?’

He blinked at me.

I followed Hermes through the kitchen and to the door leading out to the balcony. He sat and looked up at the handle. I got my coat, then opened the door and stepped out into the winter night.

Hermes blinked out of existence, vanishing from sight. From the flicker of space magic, I knew he’d teleported on to the top of the building. I climbed up the ladder to find him sitting on the edge of the roof, looking out over the city. I walked up next to the fox and followed his gaze.

I love the view from the top of my flat. The streets around my part of Camden are densely packed enough that standing this high, you can barely see any ground. Instead you see rooftops: peaked roofs, tiled roofs and the flat rectangles of the apartment blocks, their ventilators puffing smoke into the cold sky. All around, a forest of aerials and chimneys rise up, built ten or twenty or fifty years ago by nameless craftsmen and abandoned to the air. Ever since I was young, rooftops always felt like a secret world to me, parallel to the city and yet apart from it, forgotten by all but a few. When I’d been deciding whether to take over this shop, whether to move in, I think it was this view that convinced me. It wasn’t until after I’d climbed up to this spot that I did it.

I realised suddenly that I loved it here. Not just this place, but everything it represented: my shop, the city, the people around it. At some point, the shop and the flat above it had become something more than the place where I lived. It had become my home, and I’d stayed here and weathered all the storms that had come to pass. Standing up on the roof, I could see the section that had been replaced two years before, when the Nightstalkers had blasted through with an explosive charge. I’d survived, and fought, and won, and had the roof rebuilt and reinforced with steel. But none of that would protect me from the Council if they turned against me.

Could I bear to just run away? Uproot myself, flee to another country, leave behind everyone and everything I cared for? All of a sudden I wasn’t so sure. Catch a wild animal, take it to a new climate and environment and let it go, and most of the time it doesn’t survive.

I didn’t want to leave. But would I have a choice?

I stayed up there in the darkness, growing colder and colder, watching the lights of the city flicker and change and listening to the cars and trains rumble by. Finally when I began to shiver I turned and went back down. Hermes followed me. Once he was back inside my flat, he jumped up on to the armchair, curled up and went to sleep.

I stayed up waiting for Talisid until the last possible futures of him calling that night had thinned away to nothing. At last, I went to bed. I slept poorly, and started awake several times, searching the futures for danger, but the night was silent and empty.