Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (25 page)

“That was half of the message,” Rachel said distantly.
“That’s what he’ll do if we upset him. If we
betray
him”—Rachel looked at me with cold eyes—“he’ll just kill us.”

W
e were shown back to our rooms and I was left alone in the small bedroom in which I’d woken up. Outside, the rain was still coming down, and night had fallen. All I could see through the darkness and the rain was the dim outlines of trees. The room was warm and cosy, keeping out the cold, but I knew the shelter was an illusion. You might freeze to death outside, but you’d still be safer than in here.

At last I had a chance to think. I walked up and down the small room, collecting my thoughts as the rain beat against the glass and the last traces of light faded from the sky.

If nothing else, at least I finally understood what had been going on. There had been two puppetmasters from the beginning: Levistus and Morden. Everything that had happened traced back to one of them. Levistus’ pawns were the investigation team; Morden’s were the three Dark mages. Levistus had control of the site, but Morden had the key.

And what about me? Somehow I’d managed to get myself hired by both. I was safe only as long as Levistus and Morden both thought I was on their side. That would last until Morden made his move and took control of the Precursor site. At that point, Levistus would decide I’d betrayed him as soon as I was seen with Morden’s troops, and Morden would decide I’d betrayed him as soon as he tried the key in the statue and woke up the lightning elemental for another round. At which point I could expect both of them to put me on their hit list.

It comes as a bit of a shock when you stop to take a look around and realise just how badly you’ve managed to screw things up, especially when all your decisions seemed like good ideas at the time. Within a few days, two of the most powerful mages in England were going to want me personally and painfully dead.

So what was I going to do about it?

Staying faithful to either Levistus or Morden wasn’t even worth considering. Morden’s little speech had left me cold; I’d made the mistake of swearing fealty to a Dark mage once, and there was no way I was doing it again. And Levistus had made it very clear that he would keep me around exactly as long as I was useful and not one second longer. Both would be happy to have me killed as soon as the fateweaver was in their hands, assuming the other didn’t do it first.

Running wasn’t an option either. I had no idea where I was, nor how far this mansion’s wards reached; any attempt to break out would be a roll of the dice even without the guards and defences. A better plan would be to wait until we set out and try to slip away. With my magic, I could probably pull it off…but all that would earn me would be assassins in my footsteps. Neither Levistus nor Morden struck me as the forgiving type.

Force was out; so was alliance. I turned it around and looked at the problem the other way. What did I have going for me?

Knowledge. I was the only person in the world who knew how to open that relic. Morden knew about the key and maybe Levistus did too, but I was the only one who knew that Luna had to be the one to turn it. But what I could learn, others could learn. Right now I was the only one who knew, but no secret this big could stay a secret for long.

So how could I use it?

Snatches of the conversations I’d heard in the last two days floated to the top of my memory. Arachne saying how seers carried great power in times of conflict. Levistus talking about fateweavers, how commanders had carried them in the Dark Wars. Morden talking about action, purpose.

It’s hard to know exactly where ideas come from. Pieces of thought and memory assemble at the back of our minds, creating something more than the sum of their parts. I think it was then my plan started to come together, but only as something vague and shadowy. All I knew was that I needed to talk to Luna, but there was no way I could reach her.

At least, not in body…

I looked into the future: for this to work, I’d have to be sleeping at the same time that Luna was. Luck was with me, and after only an hour, I knew that now was the time. I lay down on the bed and relaxed my muscles, letting the warmth soak into my body. Night had fallen and the only light in the room was the flickering glow of the fire. My eyes drifted closed, and as I began to fall into a slumber I took my mind beyond dreams, to somewhere else. Beyond…beyond…Sleep came.

I
was back home, standing on the balcony outside my bedroom window. Before me was Camden…or what looked like Camden. The street and the bridge and the houses were the same, but everything was brighter than it should be, the colours suffused with white. The air was still, without a breath of wind, and the canal reflected the sky like a mirror. There was no sun—the whole sky seemed to glow. The city was so silent that you could have heard a car starting from miles away, except there weren’t any cars. This wasn’t London. This was Elsewhere.

Elsewhere is a world, but it’s not a place. It’s empty, yet you seem to meet someone no matter where you go. You can’t travel to it in the flesh, only in dreams, but the things that happen can be real, and the creatures you meet play by rules you can’t understand.

Even the most powerful mages are reluctant to travel to Elsewhere.
Things
live here, phantoms who can wear the faces of friends and enemies long dead, who try to trick travellers away from the paths home until they’re lost to wander forever…or so the stories say. Others claim that Elsewhere is an illusion, a reflection of your own mind, and
all you find here is what you bring with you. Still others say that Elsewhere is the place where the world of the living meets the world of the dead, and that from here you can cross from one to the other. I don’t know if any of the stories are true. What I do know is that there have been mages who’ve gone to sleep, intending to reach Elsewhere, and never woken up.

I turned and walked into my bedroom. The desk and wardrobe held items, glinting invitingly, but I didn’t stop to take them. I took the stairs down to the ground floor of my shop. By the time I reached my front door, the world outside had changed: instead of the Camden street, the door now opened onto a courtyard of cracked white flagstones. I stepped out and heard my footsteps echo around the walls. Windows looked down from balconies on all sides and an archway led off into what looked like another courtyard. I glanced back to see that my shop had disappeared. Behind was only a blank wall.

The courtyard led into a long arcade, open on both sides to what seemed like an endless expanse of paved stone. The light from the sky shone down brightly, making it hard to see. There were white birds scattered across the flagstones—doves. They cast no shadow and were difficult to make out in the dazzling light. The nearest one must have been a hundred yards away, but the place was so silent I could clearly hear the scratch of their claws on the paving stones. I kept going along the arcade until I saw a wall ahead of me, and a door. The door was made of wood and was the only colour against the white stone.

Through Elsewhere you can touch other people’s minds, speak to them in their dreams and draw them into Elsewhere as well, though it’s safer for them than it is for you. This door would lead into Luna’s dreamscape. Whether to enter would be up to her.

The sound of chatter and voices washed over me as the door swung open, shockingly loud after the silence. Inside was a ballroom filled with people, mingling and talking. The room was lit by chandeliers, but it seemed dark after
the blinding light of the courtyard outside. I had to shield my eyes, squinting, as I waited for my vision to adjust. The people inside wore evening dress and feathered masks that hid their eyes. All were in couples, one man to one woman, dancing, embracing, walking, their arms interlinked, leaning together to talk.

A moment later I saw Luna. In that whole vast room, filled with couples, she was the only one walking alone. She wore no mask, only a simple white dress, and no matter where she went, the couples around her pulled away without seeming to see her. All around her was a wide empty space, and as Luna walked slowly through the crowd, the space moved with her. “Luna,” I called, then again more loudly, “Luna!”

Luna looked up, and all of a sudden the figures froze, falling silent. The only sound was Luna’s feet on the wooden floor. She blinked. “Alex?”

“It’s me. Come here.”

Luna obeyed, wending her way through the statues. As she did the men and women seemed to fade, and an instant later she was walking across an empty floor. Luna didn’t seem to notice. Her wavy hair was down instead of up in bunches, and as she stepped out into the courtyard and shielded her eyes, I saw that she was barefoot. It gave her a lost, vulnerable look. “I thought this was a dream.”

“This is Elsewhere,” I said. The arcade had vanished, as had the door. We were alone in a vast, open arena. The birds had stayed, perched here and there amidst the flagstones. There was a bench of white stone nearby and I sat on it. Luna followed, looking around wonderingly.

“If it’s a dream, I’m glad,” Luna said as she sat. She stared out across the dazzling stone, squinting. “But this doesn’t feel like a dream anymore.” She held up a hand and stared at it, then touched it to the bench and looked at me. “Is it real?”

“Yes,” I said. “No. I’m real, you’re real. You’ll remember everything when you wake up.”

“What about…?” Luna made a movement towards herself.

It took me a moment to figure out what she was saying. I shook my head. “No. You don’t have to worry about hurting me, not here.”

“Really?”

I nodded, and Luna sighed. She scooted across on the bench and leant against me with a contented noise. “Luna?” I said in surprise.

“Don’t go,” Luna complained, closing her fingers drowsily on my coat. “Dreams are the only place I can do this.” She let out a breath. “I had a horrible day.”

I hesitated, then put an arm around Luna and leant back. What the hell, it was just a dream. “What happened?”

“They came after me,” Luna said. “Deleo and Khazad.”

“When?”

“This morning. They nearly caught me. Then I saw Deleo get a phone call and they vanished.”

“Was it about noon?”

Luna nodded, and I understood. That phone call had been Cinder telling them I’d left the museum. “You ran away?”

“My phone said you’d called. I tried to call back and I couldn’t get through.” Her hand tightened on my coat. “I didn’t know what had happened.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to be worried.”

“It’s okay,” Luna said, her voice drowsy. “As long as you’re all right.”

“What about that other man?” I asked. “Talisid.”

“Oh, him. He was trying to get in touch.”

“Did you talk to him?”

Luna shook her head, her face still hidden against my coat. “I didn’t know if I could trust him.”

I smiled. “Good girl.”

“I’m not a good girl,” Luna said. From the sound of her voice I could tell she was smiling, and I smiled too.

We sat in silence for a little while. “Alex?” Luna said eventually.

“Hm?”

“Do you ever wish you were little again? That you didn’t have to grow up?”

I thought of my years as a teenager, all the things I’d done wrong leading up to my fateful decision to sign up with Richard. “No,” I said. “Never.”

“I do,” Luna said. “It wasn’t so bad when I was young. I could be with people. It was only later…” Luna fell silent, leaning against me. I could feel her weight, see the wave in her hair. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. “I nearly let them catch me.”

“What?”

“Deleo. Khazad.”

“What?”

“I just wanted it to stop.” Luna let out a long, sighing breath. “I was thinking it wouldn’t be so…bad, being a slave. Then it wouldn’t be my fault anymore. I wouldn’t have to worry. It made sense, then…”

“No! Luna, listen to me.” I took Luna’s arms and turned her around to stare into her eyes. “You don’t understand what you’re saying. You do
not
know the kind of things that Dark mages do to the people they get their hands on. You don’t want to be held by them, ever. Do you understand?”

Luna swallowed, took a breath. “It wouldn’t be my fault. I wouldn’t have to know it was because of me—”

“
No
. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Luna’s voice strengthened suddenly. “Yes, I
do
.” She tilted her head up, staring at me. “I hurt everyone near me. Everyone. Even being close…It won’t stop, it’ll
never
stop. The longer I live, the more harm I’ll do. Wouldn’t it—” She took a breath. “Wouldn’t it be better if I were gone? No one would miss me…”

I held Luna’s gaze for a long moment before speaking quietly. “I’d miss you.”

Luna kept staring at me, then her eyes filled with tears and she started to cry.

I sat there on the bench. Luna buried her face against me and kept sobbing, her shoulders shaking as she drew in shuddering breaths. I found myself stroking her hair, talking to her quietly, but that only made her cry harder. Somehow I understood that Luna needed to do this, that this must be
the first time in years that she’d been able to. I didn’t rush her, letting her cry herself out.