Agents of Artifice

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

It took a few more weeks-weeks in which she was never far from Jace's side, weeks that she had to admit were far more pleasant than any she could recall-but everything was finally ready.

She had him fully wrapped around her finger. She knew she could sway him, push him to react exactly as she needed him to react. She knew he trusted her, loved her. It was what she'd been waiting for, working for, and now it was time.

So why did she wait? Why had she stood in the darkened main room of her flat-which she barely saw anymore, so much time was she spending in his-and stared down at her hands, for almost an hour now?

It had to be the risk, she told herself. She couldn't know precisely in what numbers they'd come, but she knew they'd come in force. Maybe she should put it off a little longer? Find a few more ways to test his powers, ensure that he'd come out ahead in the coming conflict? Perhaps-

No. No, that wasn't why she hesitated, and she damn well knew it. And putting it off? That would just make it harder still.

Setting her jaw, she cast her spells, summoned her spectral heralds, sent them out into the darkness of Ravnica to deliver their messages, repeat their whispers, until they reached the ears of those who needed to hear them.

And then Liliana sat in the dark, wondering when the thought of Jace being hurt had suddenly begun to bother her.

Ignixnax sped through the winding byways and half-repaired buildings of Rubblefield as swiftly as its four unevenly beating wings could carry it, giggling obscenely as it flew. Rarely did the imp bother to rush for much of anything, save when ordered by the bearded mortal dolt who summoned it-but rarely, then, did it have anything worth rushing for. Today, though, today it had heard whispers from the specters and the hidden demons of Ravnica's shadows, urgent whispers, vital whispers-fun whispers. And it knew those whispers must be shared.

It dived from the heights, flashing through the nearest doorway to the Consortium's complex. As a summoned servant of one of the cell's operatives, its entry was authorized, set off none of the mystical safeguards. Still, many of the guards at the door reacted to what they perceived as a threat, pulling blades, stabbing and swinging at the tiny alien thing that appeared suddenly in their midst. Ignixnax only giggled louder and darted around their swords with contemptuous ease, even taking a second to whip one of them in the face with its barbed tail before proceeding into the halls. And with that it was off into the winding halls, its twitching tail splattering bits of the foolish guard's blood and aqueous humor onto the carpet and the walls, until finally it arrived at its destination. Hovering unevenly, it reached out and scratched deeply at the wood of the door.

The door opened with a series of clicks and the faint hum of a mystic glyph deactivating, and Gemreth stuck his head out into the passage.

"I," the imp tittered at him in profane delight, "know where to find Jace Beleren."

And it was Gemreth's turn to pound through the halls of the complex, sprinting his way toward Paldor's office, Ignixnax perched on his shoulder and chortling all the while.

Jace was still smiling as he worked his way through the market throng, content enough that he didn't even feel the need to elbow anyone. Here he waved at someone he recognized from Eshton's, there he stopped by a stall to examine a coppersmith's wares before deciding to look a little further. He caught the faint aroma of fresh fish as he watched a pair of stevedores unloading crates of the stuff under the watchful eyes of some private guards. That, in turn, put him briefly in mind of Kallist; he wondered if the man might be somewhere nearby, guarding his employer's shops, or perhaps one of the many warehouses that lined the south and east sides of the marketplace.

And even that thought wasn't enough to ruin Jace's good mood; if anything, he almost hoped he'd run into his old friend, have the chance to talk to him again now that some time had elapsed. He was absolutely ecstatic about feeling normal, although he'd never have recognized the sensation and would have denied it if he had. Here he was happy, here he was safe, and if he was still too ambitious and too enamored of his magics for that to satisfy him indefinitely, for a while at least it would be enough.

But Jace Beleren didn't have a while left to him.

"They come."

Liliana-who mere moments ago left Jace behind in the market, to run his errands as she ran hers-pulled up short, ignoring the curses of the older man who almost ran into her from behind with his armload of loaves of bread. Moving far more carefully, eyes darting every which way, she moved off the main thoroughfare into a darkened doorway.

"You're sure?" she whispered, when she was certain nobody paid her much attention.

"You told us," the voice continued, and now she could barely make out a ghostly, humanoid shape among the other shadows, "keep watch as we spread our tales, keep watch for those who would respond to them. Do you doubt us now?"

"No, of course not."

"Then be warned. They come."

Damn. She'd hoped to have a few more days. They must have really rushed, to get here so quickly!

"Go," she told the lurking specter, "and gather the others. Keep watch over him. Warn or protect him where you can, but do not let yourself be detected."

The specter nodded, vanishing with a faint hiss into the shadows once more. And Liliana herself dived back into the crowd, heading back the way she had come, the words of a spell already skittering like spiders across her lips.

Jace felt a faint cold chill running down his spine, a shudder with no apparent cause. His hackles rose, and he spun swiftly to see nothing unusual at all: Just the press of the crowd, the occasional lizard-drawn cart, the various stalls, the buildings rising up beyond the bazaar's borders. He saw nothing alarming, and almost attributed the sudden shiver to an errant breeze, but it had felt so much like the necromantic energies Liliana commanded, the touch of her aura. Was she here, somewhere in the crowd? Was it an attack, something with an effect he hadn't yet sensed? Or…

Just then Jace spotted him at the edge of the crowd. He'd never have noticed him had that strange chill not caressed him, causing him to turn; and he'd never have paid much attention even then, for the blue-skinned folk were hardly a rarity in Ravnica's many districts.

But the vedalken stared at him in turn, and Jace needed only to meet his eyes to recognize Sevrien's intense and unblinking stare.

They found us!

Immediately Jace was fighting his way through the crowd, his burning urgency and rising fear at war with his desire to remain hidden, unnoticed. He saw them everywhere he looked, now, men and women who might be wearing the simple garb of laborers rather than their accustomed chain shirts, but who nonetheless moved with the poise of trained Consortium soldiers. He even recognized a few faces, and why not? He'd dwelt in the same building as these folks for quite some time, even if he'd never bothered to learn most of their names.

From all sides they converged, slow but inexorable, gliding or shoving their way through the crowds. Jace glanced back over his shoulder, saw Sevrien turn and shout orders to someone else Jace couldn't detect, pointing not in Jace's direction but off to the side. Was he ordering someone around, to try to intercept him, or…

Liliana. Had they found Liliana?

He was all but running now, as much as the press of the throng would allow. Eldritch syllables dripped from his tongue, and with every few steps he was someone else, illusion after illusion flitting across his body. Now he was an old man, shuffling along, wrapped in rags that had once been beautiful finery; now a loxodon, his tusks and trunk and platter-sized ears protruding from above the heads of the crowd; now a goblin, peering this way and that for a merchant who might be willing to deal with her kind. Sometimes the images came from his imagination alone, other times from individuals he saw or bumped into in the crowd; anything to confuse the many watching eyes. Few in the packed bazaar even noticed the sudden changes, so intent were they on their own endeavors, and those who did could only blink and stare, uncertain what they'd just seen.

For a time his misdirection kept his pursuers at bay, confused and uncertain where he'd gone, or even who he was. Still there were so many, and they knew well whom they faced. And slowly, oh so slowly, their noose drew tight, as ever more Consortium swords converged on the market's center.

"Everything ready?" asked Kallist, standing in the doorway of a great warehouse beside a wagon that creaked beneath a dozen heavy crates. Already a series of administrative and paperwork delays had kept the imported textiles out of the market for hours; half the day was already wasted. The boss was not going to be happy if they lost any more time, but Kallist had his procedures, and procedures would not be rushed.

"Not, uh, not entirely, Commander," reported the guard whose job it was to scout the streets between here and the vendors, to watch for any dangerous activity on the part of their rivals.

"And what does 'not entirely' mean?"

"Well, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with us. But something's going on in the bazaar. A whole lot of people there, Commander, and pretty heavily armed."

Kallist scowled. Was the cold war between the merchant families about to combust? "Could you tell who they work for? Or at least whose shipments they're trying to intercept?"

"That's just it, though. They're not moving in a single block, and they're not focusing on any given family or guild. I've seen manhunts before, Commander, and I'd swear they're looking for a person."

Kallist's heart sank. It could have been someone else they were after-but who? Who in Lurias was that important?

And in that moment, the past months ceased to matter. All that mattered was that the man who'd been his friend and brother, the man who'd saved his life, was threatened.

"The shipment stays here," Kallist barked. "And so do you."

He was off and running, one hand on the pommel of his broadsword, before the guard could even draw breath to question.

So focused was he on maintaining his illusions, Jace never saw her coming.

A living wisp of smoke, the elf Ireena twirled and flowed through the crowd. She spun around flying elbows, ducked beneath arms that reached for various goods, and none of it touched her. Her eyes stung mercilessly, thanks to the powders she'd sprinkled into them, but she refused to blink them clear. Through the alchemical haze, she studied the crowds, watching, waiting for…

There. The powder allowed her to see the faint aura of magic emanating from Jace Beleren as he strove pitifully to hide from them, to follow his movements no matter what pathetic guise he chose. Dancing and spinning like a delighted child, she drew ever nearer to him, and in her hand she cupped another batch of powders, wrapped in a protective leather pouch.

Jace had just worked his way past yet another fishmonger when she appeared, spinning out from behind the stall. With a brilliant white grin that looked somehow hideous in her darkly tanned face, she slapped a handful of bitter particles across his mouth and nose.

But Jace, while stunned by the sudden unexpected attack, was not entirely unprepared. Though he instantly began to cough as the drug worked its way into his lungs, fell choking to the cobblestones and felt the world grow hazy around him, he was able to deflect a portion of the powder with a fierce telekinetic thrust. His eyes watered as his body screamed for air, but he did not fall nearly as helpless as Ireena had intended.

Even as she stepped in to admire her handiwork, Jace rose to his knees and lashed out. His fist, wrapped in the same telekinetic force that had dispersed some of her powder, slammed into her solar plexus with a terrible strength. Ireena fell to lie beside him with an ear-splitting scream, clutching her gut and writhing like a landed fish. She'd live-probably, if it didn't take too long for her to get help-but she was certainly no further danger to him.

Jace tried to rise to his feet and failed, falling back against the fishmonger's stall and then once more to the street as his choking fit continued. His face reddened and he felt himself on the verge of passing out as he struggled desperately to breathe.

The people around him, a few of whom had finally turned his way to see what was wrong, suddenly scattered before the thunder of approaching hoof beats. Jace looked up to see the silhouette of a centaur looming above him. Xalmarias; it had to be Xalmarias, though between the drugs and the angle of the sun he couldn't see enough to be certain.

Paldor really had sent everyone, hadn't he?

The centaur reared, a short spear clutched in his right hand, his iron-shod hooves sharpened almost into blades in their own right, and Jace could only choke, trying to clear his lungs of the powder in time to do something, anything to save his life.

Another figure lunged from the crowd, leaping atop the centaur's back as though he were a wild horse in need of breaking. Xalmarias cried out in indignation as a powerful hand reached out and snagged his spear, trying to yank it from his grip, even as the other buried itself in his hair, wrenching his head back sharply enough to bring tears to his eyes.

"Jace!" Kallist cried out, struggling to keep his seat as the centaur bucked and thrashed, "Go! Run!"

Staggering to his feet, the coughing fit finally beginning to subside, Jace did just that. He hurled himself once more into the crowd, which was now backing fearfully away from the struggle in their midst, trying to lose himself within.

As he pushed and elbowed his way through, Jace carefully cast out with his mind. Remembering every detail of Tezzeret's lessons, he touched first one, then another, spreading himself as wide and as thin as he ever had. He couldn't read a single true thought this way, but then, he didn't need to. Most of the crowd felt little save boredom, maybe casual excitement or-near where Kallist and Xalmarias fought-a growing fear. Jace hoped, prayed, that even his casual touch would alert him to another killer in the crowd, that the sudden bloodlust of a coming attack would warn him before a Consortium blade took him in the back.

And then the emotions around him turned to panic as a dozen people screamed, their eyes turning skyward. Jace immediately dived to the ground in a roll made awkward by his lingering shortness of breath, coming to a stop beneath a cheap vegetable stand. Only then did he look up, and he wondered if it wouldn't have been better to keep rolling.

It flapped through the air above him, awkward but frighteningly swift. It had somehow sprouted wings that it had lacked the last time Jace saw it, that horrible night in his room, but he recognized the old man's cackling face, the scorpion-like stinger that quivered, eager to strike, above its back.

Coming to his feet, he allowed himself to be carried along by the press of the panicking throng. That he could summon something to tear the little horror from the sky, Jace had no doubt, but it did him no good if he couldn't find its summoner-Gemreth, almost certainly, unless Paldor had called in one of the Consortium planeswalkers.

Straining to maintain his mental "net" over the crowd, ever alert for a secondary attack, Jace cast his sight up and out, trusting the press of the throng to keep him moving while his senses hovered elsewhere. From above, he peered about him in all directions, seeking the dark robes and grey-speckled beard…

There! Roughly a hundred feet across the market, Jace spotted his foe, crouched atop a merchant's wagon. Allowing his eyesight to return to his head, still moving with a portion of the crowd, he worked his way forward. As he advanced, he glanced over his shoulder, desperate to keep track of the minuscule fiend as well.

He couldn't see it!

A cold rain of fear dripped down Jace's spine. Without eyes on the creature, he was as helpless as anyone else, for he could never detect the little demon's mind as he could a mortal being's. He knew he could wait no longer to call on assistance of his own. It was a tricky thing to do while maintaining his psychic web over the crowd, keeping track not only of the enemy mage but searching for other foes who might lurk nearby, but again-thanks, ironically, to Tezzeret's exercises-he pulled it off.

And the screams of the crowd rose further still as another shape, a larger shape, appeared with a thunderclap in the afternoon sky. Its wingspan wider than many of the vendors' stalls, a steam-tongued drake cast a shadow over the heart of the market. At Jace's silent command it circled, hunting for its smaller but no less deadly prey. Jace himself continued onward, thankful that the flying creatures had distracted the people nearest him so that none had seen him cast his spells.

It was the gleam of triumph in Gemreth's expression as Jace drew near him, more so even than the shriek of the drake, that warned him. Jace spun to see the diminutive demon diving from atop a nearby shop. Even as he dropped once more to the earth, Jace sent a mental shriek for help to his summoned ally.

And the drake replied in the only way it knew how.

A wave of billowing steam washed over the market, a burning spear through the heart of Lurias. In a matter of seconds, Gemreth and his conjured beast were reduced to lumps of seared flesh and sodden bone.

So, too, were a score of the district's panicked citizens. They died in terror; they died in agony.

And Jace felt each and every one of them die.

Through his network of psychic tendrils that scanned the crowd, their dying thoughts flowed into him. They flayed his mind and soul, stripping away humanity and conscious thought, until there was nothing left but pain. So much pain, so much fear, so many Final cries and he'd never again see his husbands or wives or brothers or sisters, would never open the blacksmith shop he'd dreamed of, never watch the seyer-blossoms bloom in the garden. What would the children do without him? Tanarra I loved you, oh gods it hurts it burns please gods make it stop…

Jace curled into a ball, body and soul, screaming in voices that were not his, and all he knew was pain.

"Jace!" Kallist had no difficulty finding his fallen friend; the burst of steam and the scent of charred flesh were signal enough. He knelt on the cobblestones, dropping the sword now stained with the blood of the centaur Xalmarias, and cradled Jace's head in his hands. "Jace, are you all right? What happened?"

The mage's eyes refused to focus, and still he screamed.

For an instant, Kallist felt only panic. What had happened? What could he do? Maybe he should wait for Liliana, but where was she? Could he afford to wait that long? Could Jace?

No. No, Kallist didn't think he could.

"Jace!" He held his friend's face close. "Jace, listen to me! It's Kallist; I'm here!"

He took a deep breath; he didn't know what Jace was suffering, but he'd both seen and inflicted enough anguish to recognize it now. A second deep breath, steeling himself against he knew not what.

"Jace, I don't know what to do! Tell me what I can do…"

Jace never heard the words, but he felt the thoughts and the emotions behind them. Kallist's mind, which he knew so well, was a beacon in the dark and the pain, a light showing him the way out.

And Jace's screaming ceased. Kallist felt something invade his mind, a touch that squeezed so painfully he thought he must surely die or go mad himself-but it squeezed not with anger, but with fear, a grip of desperation.

Jace felt Kallist's mind in his hands, a rock amid the tearing tides around him. Clinging to it, he hauled himself back, inch by maddening, agonizing inch.

Both men lay, side by side, panting in exhaustion and pain, surrounded by the dead and the dying until Liliana found them moments later. And with Jace leaning on her, Kallist staggering behind, they managed to limp away before Sevrien and his soldiers could find them once more.

"Fight back? Are you insane?"

Liliana shook her head. "Jace, they found us. They'll keep finding us! What choice do we have?"

They were huddled in Kallist's own flat, trying to catch their breath and regroup. The shutters were tightly latched, casting the room in a grim shade, and the door was triple-bolted. Kallist had sworn they'd be safe there, at least for a time, as he hadn't rented the place under his own name. Still, they jumped at every sound, froze at every movement in the stairwell or the street beyond.

Jace sat flopped in a thickly cushioned chair, pale and shaking, though some of his strength seemed to have returned. He refused outright to discuss what had happened, brushing off even Liliana's most concerned inquiries, focusing only on what came next.

"Liliana," he said softly, "we can't. I can't."

"What choice?" she demanded again.

"We planeswalk. We go somewhere they'll never find us."

"It means leaving Kallist behind," Liliana reminded him.

"That's fine." Both of them turned to see Kallist in the door to the flat's tiny kitchen, a mug of something or other in his hand. "I'm not prepared to give up my life a second time," he told them. "Besides, let's be honest. They're not really after me. Once they've figured out you two are gone, I doubt they'll spend too much time hunting for me. I'll disappear for a few weeks, and that'll be it."

"Just like that?" Jace asked, and neither Kallist nor Liliana was entirely sure if he doubted Kallist's predictions, or referred to the end of their own relationship.

"I think so," he answered softly. "You do what you need to, Jace. I'll be fine."

For several hours Jace and Liliana talked, discussing possible worlds and destinations, she occasionally trying to talk him into staying and fighting, he always refusing even to consider the notion. And eventually she rose and left, ostensibly to send her ghosts out to see if Jace's flat was safe, so they could recover the rest of his belongings, but mostly because she was sick of arguing.

All right, so he'd need a bit more convincing. She could do that. She had time.

Only when she was well and truly gone did Jace rise and make his way to the next room, to which Kallist had retired, giving the couple the chance to talk. He stood in the doorway, staring at his friend who slumped, dozing, at the table.

He hadn't told Liliana what he'd planned; she'd have tried to talk him out of it. He hadn't told Kallist, for Kallist would most assuredly have refused. And Jace admitted he'd have had good reason to do so.

But Jace couldn't leave him behind, not now. He'd been in Kallist's mind, seen how much his friend still worried for him. And Jace worried for him in turn. He knew Tezzeret-better than Kallist did-and Jace believed, in his heart and soul, that Kallist was wrong. He wasn't safe here, not even if Jace and Liliana were gone for decades.

There was a way. He'd thought it possible for years, ever since Tezzeret had told him of his "mind-storage" device, ever since he'd felt the minds of the traitor and the nezumi shogun and realized they were, indeed, objects that he could manipulate. And now, now that he'd touched Kallist's mind once more, felt its weight, its shape, its essence, Jace was all but certain.

No, a planeswalker couldn't take another person with him through the Blind Eternities. But another mind? That, Jace knew, he could do. He could hold Kallist within himself, just long enough to make the journey and to find another body, a new body, for him to inhabit. It would mean erasing the mind of someone else, to make room for Kallist's own, but Jace was certain he could find someone who deserved it.

Kallist would never forgive him; he knew that before he even started. But he would be alive, and Jace owed him that-even if it wasn't what Kallist thought he wanted.

With a deep sigh, Jace thrust his mind into his friend's. Again he cradled it in his grip, tenderly examining it from all sides. And then he did what he'd never tried before-what nobody, to his knowledge, had ever tried before-and drew it to him.

He was Jace Beleren, mind-reader, planeswalker. And he knew he could do this.

Knew, right up until the moment that Kallist's mind truly entered his own, and everything went wrong.

Jace thought he could keep them separate, that he could keep the him that was Kallist in a tiny corner of the him that was Jace. Two minds sharing a body, yes, but far from equally. As they touched, Jace's protections popped, soap bubbles on the wind, for this was a pressure of a sort he'd never known. It wasn't an attack, it wasn't communication, it wasn't anything he could have imagined-and what Jace could not imagine, he could not weave into his spells.

Already he was experiencing memories not his own, remembering dreams he'd never had. He seemed to be staring at the room from two different angles, staring at two faces, and he couldn't recall which was his. His head began to throb, his concentration to blow away like perfume on the wind.

Desperately he tried to stop the spell, to push Kallist's thoughts back where they belonged-but even if he'd had the power or the focus to do so, Jace had already forgotten how, the knowledge buried beneath the flood of someone else's mind.

Still he pushed, running on instinct now rather than knowledge, struggling to separate the thoughts of his friend from his own, even if he could no longer remember which was which, who was who.

On it went, and on, until finally what had nearly become one was indeed two once more. And Jace, who had been Kallist, and Kallist, who had been Jace, lay unconscious together on the thin rug of the anonymous flat.