A Life Less Ordinary (34 page)

I looked at him. Something had just clicked in my mind. “People sell slaves to you?”

“Of course,” the Nameless Elf said. “The human race is a puny race. You have no spark of true greatness within you. The men you choose to lead your people would not hesitate to do whatever it took to maintain power. They bring slaves into your world of magic and then give them to me. I take them in delight and use them for my art.”

“The
Thirteen
sells you slaves?” I asked. Who else could he mean? “They...?”

“Of course,” the Nameless Elf said, again. “You don’t think, do you?”

“No,” I agreed, absently. I asked a question that had been bothering me, although I wasn’t sure why. “Why did Cardonel come to see you?”

“He wanted me to turn him into a real elf,” the Nameless Elf said. He laughed until I pushed the Cold Iron against his skin. “The very thought!”

I asked him several more questions, but he couldn’t tell me very much, although I did learn that he had a handful of human allies who brought him items from the mundane world, including the transformed statue. I’d put that in my bag and I’d take it home and free her personally. The paedophile Master Revels had used as the fall guy for the whole scheme would be in jail, loudly protesting his innocence to a disbelieving world, but I could probably construct a convincing scenario.

“You have asked your questions,” the Nameless Elf said, breaking into my thoughts. “You can now free me and depart.”

I knew that he was right. Reworking the spell that had transfigured the Cold Iron was the work of a moment, although I had to set a timer to make sure he wasn’t freed while I was still inside the wards that were keeping him prisoner. I looked down at him, shook my head tiredly, and started to walk towards the exit.

“You don’t think,” the Nameless Elf said, his words somehow echoing out after me. “What hides in plain sight, but is never seen?”

I stepped out of the door and waited long enough to ensure that the defences were resetting themselves, keeping him prisoner for the rest of eternity. I felt my spell trigger and remove the Cold Iron, followed rapidly by a chilling temper tantrum. Even outside the wards, I felt it; the Nameless Elf was furious. I wondered, with a cold heartedness that I hadn’t known I’d possessed, if he would think to wash. The transfigured Cold Iron was still on his skin, after all, and my spell would run out of power soon. The results...would not be pleasant for him. I found it hard to care. The Nameless Elf was a threat to anyone unlucky enough to stumble into him.

But I’d hit a dead end. The Nameless Elf hadn’t held Master Revels prisoner, nor was he involved with the fire demon or the disappearing ghosts. We’d visited the Elfish Kingdom and the Queen had confirmed that the elves were not involved, which left...?

Something shattered in my mind, a ward I hadn’t known I possessed. No, not a ward; something else that had been interfering with my mind, a powerful and yet subtle glamour-spell. I looked out on the world with new eyes and swore aloud, just before I started to run. I knew who was behind the plot now, even if I didn’t know why. And I had to stop him before it was too late.

And I felt like a fool. The Nameless Elf was right. What hid in plain sight and was never noticed? The answer was simple; the obvious. I’d overlooked the key to the whole mystery.

I’d been used and I hadn’t even noticed.

Chapter Thirty

“You bewitched me!”

Cardonel regarded me with surprise. I’d come bursting into his apartment without even bothering to knock, a serious breach of the magical world’s few manners. A magician’s home was his castle, after all, and even a half-breed like Cardonel was entitled to his privacy. Bursting in was a clear way of signalling unfriendly intentions. He looked...oddly weak when I stared at him.

“The Silent Order found traces of elfish magic,” I said. He’d tried to kiss me when he’d seen me and I’d pushed him away angrily. Any man would have found them offensive and worrying, but I suspected that his worries had a different foundation. It was easy to forget, looking at him, that Cardonel was older than me and probably more experienced in the ways of magic. Even as a half-elf, he had a connection to magic that no human magician could match. “We believed them and we checked with the elves and then with the Nameless Elf. They had nothing to do with it.”

I stared at him, unwilling to take my eyes off his chest. Making eye contact would have been dangerous. “We knew that an elf was involved somewhere and yet I never thought of you,” I said. I waved a hand at his pointy ears. “It never occurred to me that you were a half-elf and would have some ability to use elfish magic. Were you laughing at me when you told me that you were burning up because of your father’s energies? I should have realised that you had access to some elfish tricks.”

Cardonel’s eyes narrowed. “Dizzy...”

“I never thought straight when I was with you,” I snapped. In hindsight, it was chillingly clear. “I thought you were sexy; my knees went weak every time I looked at you. You exude a panty-dropping musk that would have a man-hating lesbian bending over for you. How much of that was nothing more than glamour-spells?”

I pushed on before he could say anything. “The Nameless Elf must have recognised your spell on me,” I said. “He kept asking what was the only thing that was in plain sight, yet never seen. You, the half-elf, the one who might have a desperate need to understand the ghosts and where they go after they finally fade away. You, the half-elf, with connections and friends among the younger Rationalists, the ones who want to push ahead with experiments the Thirteen saw fit to ban. You, the half-elf, who talked about breaking the stranglehold the Thirteen had on the magical world and convincing them to share power...

“I never spoke to my master about your words. Why didn’t I do that?”

“Maybe you liked me enough not to betray me?” Cardonel asked, angrily. His form was starting to flicker, just like the Nameless Elf had done. I wondered, with a sudden burst of insight, if I had ever seen his real form. Sure, he’d dropped one glamour-spell, yet there could easily have been a second hidden under the first. The elves were experts at disguising themselves and presenting a certain appearance to the world and Cardonel had definitely inherited that talent. He had to be physical, because his mother had been physical, yet...what did he really look like? I had the nasty feeling that I wasn’t going to like what I found. “I helped you to free the slaves, remember?”

“Yes, you did,” I said. His voice had been dripping molten honey. It would have been more convincing if I hadn’t been able to sense, now, the tiny flickers of Compulsion within his voice. It was quite possible to tell someone that two and two made five and, if one used enough Compulsion, they would believe it and even try to justify it to themselves. My senses were on a hair-trigger. “And yet...”

I learned forward, pushing the Compulsion away. “You met me in the market and came onto me,” I said. “That isn’t typical in the magical world, yet you did it...and I liked you from the start. My master thought otherwise, but I thought that he was acting out of racism; he seemed to think that all half-elves were untrustworthy. Somehow, that urged me to go out on a date with you, where I met your friends. You helped me to free the slaves...and in doing so, I was grateful to you. Or did you think that I would be in your hands afterwards? The slave owners would certainly not be happy with me and you could have blackmailed me into compliance.

“And I found you attractive, and I slept with you, and ... how much of that was real feeling and how much of it was something that you inserted into my mind?”

Cardonel opened his mouth to speak, but I rode over him. “I’m the apprentice to the Thirteen’s enforcer, to use your word,” I said. “You had to have been delighted. If you could get me to spy on my master, you’d have the source you needed, someone who could help you on your grand plan. But I wasn’t willing to commit myself and instead we started looking at the missing ghosts. And then my master went looking for the source of the fire demon.”

Something clicked in my mind. “I bet it was Linux who summoned the fire demon,” I added. “All the records would have been destroyed, apart from the ones he’d taken out and given to you, research into ghosts and how they could be used. Why did you even want them?

“Dizzy...”

“Don’t you fucking Dizzy me,” I shouted at him. “Take me to my master or I swear I will hurt you, here and now!”

Cardonel moved so quickly I barely had a second to sense the magical blast before it slammed into my wards. Blue fire, sparking with evil alien intent, flared out in front of me, burning through protections. I pushed it away and released the spell on the transfigured Cold Iron, hoping that it would knock him out or render him powerless, as it had done for the Nameless Elf. Instead, Cardonel came striding through the fire, utterly unaffected. He no longer looked human. I could see long claws stretching out of his hands and his face was something horrible, warped by magic.

“I have no vulnerability to Cold Iron,” he said, his words hissing in my mind. Like the full-blood elves, he was telepathic, at least to some degree. “My mother may have weakened me with her impure human blood, but she gave me a power that even my father didn’t enjoy.”

He pointed a long finger and clicked his fingers. There was a blue-white flash of light and the world went away. I felt, just for a long moment, as if I were drowning in inky darkness, as if my life was draining out of me. I heard voices all around me, calling out, although I couldn’t tell if they were warning me or welcoming me. I saw an angel, with wings spread wide, looking down with an expression of absolute sadness. There was a pale woman, wearing a silver ankh around her neck, standing ahead of me. She lifted her hand and waved...

And then I was back in my body.

“Welcome back to the world of the living,” Cardonel said. “I never meant to injure you.”

I scowled at him. While I’d been out, he’d stripped me of everything from clothes to magical artefacts, leaving them piled up at the other end of the room. He’d cuffed me to a wooden chair, so thoroughly that it was almost completely impossible to move. The cuffs were made of silver, making it harder to use my magic, although my head was scrambled so badly that using any magic might have been horrendously dangerous. If I’d thought it would rebound on him, I’d have taken the risk, but there was no way to be certain.

“Bastard,” I said, harshly. “What are you going to do with me?”

“Well,” Cardonel drawled. He reached out with one hand and stroked my right breast. “I’m sure we could find some way to pass the time.”

I recoiled. “You’d have to force me,” I snarled. “I bet you get all your women that way.”

He paced away from me, peering down at my clothes and then at a timepiece he had in his hand. “You’ll be pleased to know that we don’t intend to do anything to you,” he said, darkly. “You’re not important to us. Once the New Age has dawned, you will be released and you will be welcome to join us or find your own place within it. Until then, I’m afraid that we are going to have to keep you here.” His voice became mocking. “I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”

“I’m sure you are,” I sneered. This wasn’t good. I was naked, unable to move and completely at his mercy. I understood why he’d stripped me, far too well. Magic was often as dependent upon symbolism as much as anything else and being naked signified helplessness. The cuffs not only ensured that I couldn’t move, but also that my ability to use magic – when my head finally cleared – was limited. Cardonel had put me into a position where a great deal of magical inertia would make it difficult to escape. “How long are you going to keep me here?”

“The New Age will dawn at midnight tonight,” Cardonel said. He shrugged dispassionately. “It was never meant to be so soon, but your master was getting alarmingly close to the truth and he might have been able to rally the Thirteen to act in their own defence. The Great Powers of the Universe would certainly have acted to prevent the dawn of the New Age if the Thirteen refused and they might well have destroyed much of the world in the process.”

“The New Age,” I repeated. I concentrated on looking helpless. Like his father’s people, Cardonel had a tendency to be overconfident and gloat; I’d seen that while he’d been playing cards. If I asked the right questions, he might explain everything. “What are you going to do?”

Cardonel leered at me. “Everything will change,” he said. “There will be a new age of magic, where wonders will once again be common and we will rise to new heights.”

“You plan to destroy the Thirteen,” I said, slowly. “I don’t think that that would bring about a new age of magic.”

“My plan is far greater than that,” Cardonel said. He leaned closer. “What is the greatest difference between humanity and the elves?”

“One is made of matter, the other is made of magic,” I answered. It was hardly a hard question. “What do you intend to do about it?”

My mockery, as I had hoped, spurred him onwards. “The source of magic lies in a dimension very far from our own, and yet – for the right kind of person – right next door,” Cardonel proclaimed. I realised, suddenly, that he was giving a political speech rather than anything else. “We can tap that magic and, properly filtered, use it to rise to a new level of being, a new form of magical creature. Humanity will shed its physical form and become a creature of magic, a creature far more powerful than any of the elves. We will rise to new heights and the elves will only be able to watch and weep as we leave them far behind.”

He rounded on me, his dark eyes burning with alien fire. “We will puncture a hole into the afterlife itself, the source of all magic,” he thundered. “We will use the magic to reform the entire world, mundane and magical. We will rise and the Great Powers, those who have held humanity at their mercy since the dawn of time, will be bent to our will. The whole of Creation will change forever.”

I stared at him, appalled. I knew that the Great Powers were capricious, yet they were an essential part of running the universe. Destroying them, perhaps even controlling them, would have disastrous effects, assuming that it were possible. If they knew what was being planned, every great power in the universe would unite against him. It was quite possible that Cardonel’s scheme would blow up in his face, which would have dire consequences for everyone in the magical world. Or maybe God would send an angel to stop them, whatever the cost. Entire cities had died in the past through God’s will.