Alex Verus Novels, Books 1-4 (9780698175952) (78 page)

Talisid shook his head. “Has anybody ever told you you're a remarkably cynical person?”

“I like to think of it as learning from experience.”

“I've never forced you to accept a job.”

“I know.”

The doors opened into a stairwell. Narrow rays of sun were streaming down through slit windows of frosted glass, catching motes of dust floating in the air. They lit us up as we climbed, placing us in alternating light and shadow. “Okay,” I said. “Hit me.”

“The task I'd like your help with is likely to be difficult and dangerous,” Talisid said. “It's also covered by strict Council secrecy. You may not tell anyone the details, or even that you're working for us.”

I looked over my shoulder with a frown. “Why all the secrecy?”

“You'll understand once you hear the details. Whether to take the assignment is up to you, but confidentiality is not.”

I thought for a second. “What about Luna?”

“The Council would prefer to limit the number of people in the know as far as possible,” Talisid said. “However, due to the . . . nature of the problem I believe your apprentice might be of some help.” Talisid paused. “She would also be in greater danger.”

We reached the top floor and stopped at the doors to the hall. “I'll be down the corridor,” Talisid said. “Once you've decided, come speak to me.”

“Not coming in?”

Talisid shook his head. “The fewer people that know of my involvement, the better. I'll see you in twenty minutes.”

I watched Talisid go with a frown. I've done jobs for Talisid before, and while they'd generally been successful, they hadn't been safe. In fact, they'd been decidedly unsafe. If he was calling the job “difficult and dangerous” . . . I turned and pushed the doors open.

The top hall had once been a boxing gym. Chains hung from the ceiling, but the heavy bags had been removed and so had the ring at the centre. Mats covered the floor and light trickled in from windows high above. Two blocky ceramic constructions were set up at either end of the hall, ten feet tall and looking exactly like a pair of giant tuning forks.

Inside the room were five students and one teacher. Three of the students were against the far wall: a small round-faced Asian girl, a blond-haired boy with glasses, and an Indian boy with dark skin and the khaki turban of a Sikh who was keeping a noticeable distance from the first two. All looked about twenty or so. I didn't know their names but had seen them around enough times to recognise them as seniors in the apprentice program.

The next girl I knew a little better. She was tall and slim, with black hair that brushed her shoulders, and her name was Anne. And standing close to her (but not too close) was Luna, my apprentice.

The last person in the room was the teacher. He was just under thirty, well dressed and affluent-looking with short dark hair and olive-tinted skin, and he stopped what he'd been saying as I walked in. Five sets of interested eyes turned in my direction, following the teacher's gaze.

“Hi, Lyle,” I said. “Didn't know you'd taken up teaching.”

Lyle hesitated. “Er—”

I waved a hand. “Don't let me interrupt. Go right ahead.” I found a spot on the wall and leant against it.

“Um,” Lyle looked from me to the students. “Er. The thing—Well, as I—yes.” He floundered, obviously off his groove. Lyle's never been good with surprises. I watched with eyebrows raised and an expression of mild enquiry. I didn't feel like making it easy for him.

Lyle was one of the first Light mages I met when Richard Drakh introduced me into magical society. We'd both been teenagers then, but Lyle had a few years of experience on me: His talent had developed earlier than mine and he'd had time to learn the ins and outs of the social game. I'd been a Dark apprentice and there'd never been any question but that Lyle would try for the Council, but all the same we became friends. We were both the type to rely on cleverness rather than strength, and our types of magic complemented each other nicely. Unfortunately, our goals turned out to be less compatible.

At the time I was still feeling my way, unsure of what I wanted to be. Lyle on the other hand knew exactly what he wanted: status, advancement, prestige, a position in the Council bureaucracy from which he could work his way upwards. And when I lost Richard's favour and with it any standing I might have had, Lyle had to choose between me and his ambitions. Supporting me would have cost him. So when I showed up, alone and desperate, Lyle's response was to pretend I wasn't there. Under mage law the master-apprentice relationship is sacred. An apprentice is their master's responsibility, no one else's. I'd defied Richard, fled from him, and it was Richard's right to do with me as he pleased. The Light mages knew that Richard would come to collect his runaway and so they shut me out . . . and waited for him to finish things.

But something happened then that the Light and the Dark mages did not expect. When Richard sent Tobruk to kill me—the cruellest and most powerful of his four apprentices—it was Tobruk who died. And in the aftermath, instead of coming to take vengeance Richard vanished, along with his last two apprentices, Rachel and Shireen. I was left alive, safe . . . and alone.

Technically, under mage law, I hadn't done anything wrong. It's not illegal for an apprentice to successfully defend themselves against their master; it's just so bloody rare no one's ever bothered to pass a law against it. But I'd broken tradition older than law. An apprentice is supposed to obey their master for good or ill, and no other mage would take me on—after all, if I'd rebelled against one master, I might rebel against another. Besides, no one was quite sure what had happened to Richard. He might be gone for good—or he might suddenly reappear, in which case nobody wanted to be anywhere near me when he did. So once again, other mages distanced themselves from me and waited.

They waited and waited, and kept waiting so long they forgot all about me, by which time I was glad to let them do it. I started to make a new life for myself. I travelled, had some adventures. As a result of one of them I inherited a shop, a little business in the side streets of Camden Town. I'd been planning to run it only a few months, but as the months turned into years I realised I enjoyed what it brought me. The shop and the flat above it became my residence, then my home. I made new friends. Gradually I began to remember what it was like to be happy again.

And then one day Lyle walked into my shop and brought me back into the mage world with its politics and its alliances and its dangers. This time I was prepared. And this time, to my surprise, I found I liked it.

I snapped out of my reverie. Lyle was talking and seemed to have regained his confidence, though it was obvious that he'd prefer it if I wasn't here. “—remember that in a duel, you're representing both your master and the Council,” Lyle was saying. “Now, I know some of you have done this before, but it's very important that your form is exactly right. Let's go through the basic greetings one more time . . . Yes?”

The one who had raised her hand was Luna. “Um,” Luna said. “Could you explain how these duels work?”

Lyle blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

Luna looked around to see that everyone else was watching her. “Well . . .” She seemed to choose her words carefully. “You've explained about the selection process. And the rituals and the salutes, and the withdrawal at the end. What about the part in the middle?”

“What part?”

“Um . . . the actual duel.”

“Well, it depends, I suppose.” Lyle looked confused. “Styles change and all that. Personally, I find the performance is more important.”

“We're supposed to be practising for the tournament today,” the Sikh boy said. He sounded unfriendly.

“Oh.” Lyle looked around. “Well, um . . . yes, maybe a practice match then.” Lyle glanced quickly over Luna, then pointed to the other two girls. “Natasha and, um, Anne. Why don't you go first.”

The round-faced girl, Natasha, looked at Anne in anticipation. Anne bowed her head slightly to Lyle. “I'm sorry, but I can't.”

Natasha made a rude noise and the boy with glasses rolled his eyes. “Oh God, not this again.”

“Er . . .” Lyle looked taken aback. “Is there some medical reason—”

“No, she's fine,” Natasha chipped in. “She just won't do it.”

“Anne?” Lyle said. “Is there a reason?”

“I'm sorry,” Anne said again. She had a soft, quiet voice. “I don't mean to cause any trouble.”

“It's nothing to do with trouble,” Lyle said with a frown. “Unless you or your master can give a good reason, you're required to participate.”

Anne didn't answer. “All right then,” Lyle said, gesturing to the centre of the hall. “Off you go.”

No response. “Anne?” Lyle said irritably. “Did you hear me?”

Anne stood silently, looking back at Lyle. “This is an order,” Lyle declared, pointing to the mats. “Get over there and participate.”

Anne still didn't move and Lyle was left standing with one arm outstretched. He looked vaguely ridiculous and everyone else in the room was watching him. Lyle hesitated, then lowered his arm quickly. “Anne, will you do as you're told, please?” It was probably supposed to sound authoritative, but it came out more like a pleading.

Anne shook her head mutely. “Oh, this is such crap,” Natasha said angrily. “How come she gets to do this?”

“Just do the duel already,” the other boy said.

“Yes, er . . .” Lyle said. “I need to impress upon you the seriousness of this. Refusing a direct order from an authorised teacher is—”

“Why don't you guys ever do anything about her?” Natasha demanded. “She always does this and you always let her get away with it.”

“Leave her alone,” Luna said.

“You stay out of this.”

“What makes it your business?” Luna said. “You want a duel so badly, try me.”

“I don't have to—” Natasha started saying angrily. The boy with glasses started to talk over her, and both Luna and the Sikh boy started talking over him, raised voices making a clamour.

“Quiet,” Lyle said. “QUIET!” Gradually, he was obeyed. The five students fell silent, glowering at each other.

“As I was saying,” Lyle began, then looked at Anne and trailed off. Anne hadn't moved. Her stance wasn't confrontational, but she was looking at Lyle with a sort of quietly polite expression. Lyle looked at Luna, then at Natasha.

It was easy to read Lyle's thoughts. He wanted to force Anne to do as she was told, but he couldn't think of any way to make her do it. The alternative was to let Luna step into her place, and he didn't want to do that either, in case that ticked me off. In the end Lyle did what Lyle always does: pass the buck. “Er,” he said, looking up at me. “If your apprentice doesn't mind . . .”

I nodded at Luna. “Ask her.”

“Er,” Lyle said again. “Right. Well. Natasha and, er, Luna. Take your focuses.”

Natasha was whispering something to the boy with glasses. I walked towards Luna, aiming to meet her by the table in the corner, but Anne got there first. “You didn't have to do that,” Anne said quietly.

Anne is tall and slender, only a few inches shorter than me, with dark hair framing a face the shape of a downwards-pointed triangle. She looks about twenty-two, Luna's age, which is on the old side for an apprentice—most graduate to journeyman by twenty-one or so. Her eyes are an odd red-brown colour, set at an angle that gives her a slightly catlike look, and there's a stillness to her movements. She's striking, but she has a quiet unobtrusive manner that tends to make her fade into the background.

Luna looks very different. She's average height, with wavy brown hair worn up in bunches and a fair complexion inherited from both her Italian father and her English mother. She'd blend into a crowd, if she'd ever willingly step into one, which she wouldn't. She used to always have a distant look, but these days she feels more animated, connected to the world. As Anne spoke, Luna gave her a quick glance and moved automatically away. “Don't worry about it.”

“I don't want you to get in trouble because of me.”

Luna shrugged. “She was getting on my nerves anyway.”

Anne had been standing with her back to me, but as I came up to them she turned and dipped her head slightly. “Hello, Mr. Verus.”

“He hates it when people call him that,” Luna said without looking up. “Just call him Alex.”

Anne looked between me and Luna. “Ah . . .”

A sharp voice spoke from a little distance away. “Anne.”

I looked up to see the Sikh boy frowning at us. He made a quick beckoning motion to Anne. “I'm sorry,” Anne said. “Could you excuse me a second?”

I watched Anne walk away. “Very polite, isn't she?” I said once she was out of earshot.

“She's always like that,” Luna said absently. “Okay, help me out here. I have no idea how to use these.”

The Sikh boy was talking to Anne under his breath, making quick hand movements. He kept his face turned away, but from his stance he looked tense. I watched a second, then shook my head and turned back to Luna. “All right. How much has Lyle taught you?”

“A lot of stuff about how to bow and curtsey.”

“Square one then.” I nodded to the giant tuning forks at either end of the hall. “Those ceramic things are azimuth duelling focuses. When they're activated, they maintain a conversion field around the person they're targeted on. The conversion field takes any external magical energy that tries to penetrate it and transforms it into light. Basically, it's a wide-spectrum shield. If a magical attack hits you, there's a flash and nothing happens. The flash is used for scoring. One flash, one point.”