Burned (38 page)

‘That’s the one piece of good news. The results haven’t been officially released as yet, but from what I’ve been able to learn, your apprentice passed. Luna Mancuso is officially recognised by the Light Council of Britain as their newest journeyman mage.’

I stared down at the phone for a second, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

‘Alex? Are you there?’

‘I’m here.’ The relief was so strong I felt dizzy. ‘Is she okay? She’s in custody too?’

‘She hasn’t been arrested. The Keepers are currently questioning her, presumably in hopes of her leading them to you, but she’s due to be released shortly.’

‘Wait.’ Now I was confused. I looked at Anne; she looked puzzled as well. ‘There wasn’t any order to arrest Luna?’

‘No,’ Talisid said. ‘The order only mentioned you. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that I’ve traced it back to Levistus.’

‘Not so much.’ That was no shock, at least. But in that case … ‘Wait. If the order was only for my arrest, why were there Keepers going after Anne?’

‘That I’m afraid I don’t know,’ Talisid said. ‘Landis’s request to move Variam and Anne to his sponsorship was approved in the case of Variam but rejected in the case of Anne. Immediately after that information was released, an order was issued to bring Anne Walker in for questioning.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Are you saying Levistus tried to get me and Anne arrested, but not Luna and Vari?’

‘Levistus was certainly the one behind the order for
your
arrest, but I haven’t heard anything linking him to the order for Anne’s.’

Anne and I looked at each other. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and it didn’t seem as though Anne had any idea either. Still … I shook my head.
Focus.
‘Okay. As I understand it, come tomorrow evening, my death sentence is going to be passed. And since Anne’s still my dependent, it’ll affect her too. Is there any way to stop that?’

‘With the arrest order out?’ Talisid said. ‘Short of direct intervention by the Senior Council, there’s no way to stop that sentence going through. You’re going to have to get out of the country. And if you’re in touch with Anne, I’d pass the same advice to her.’

I noted that Talisid didn’t ask where Anne was. He’d probably put two and two together. ‘Just good news all around, huh?’

‘I wish I had better news, but I don’t.’ Talisid paused. ‘I know it’s not worth very much to you right now, but I’m sorry. I didn’t want things to go this way.’

‘Any more good news?’

‘Not as yet. I’ll look into getting the sentence reversed, but it won’t be quick or easy. For now, just focus on staying alive. I’ll contact you when I know more.’

‘Great.’

‘Is there anything you need?’

‘A lot of things. I just don’t think you can give them.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ Talisid paused. ‘Good luck.’

If I had to talk much longer, I was going to snap. I reached down and pressed the button to end the call. The phone went dead.

Anne spoke into the silence. ‘We’re on our own, aren’t we?’

‘Yeah,’ I said. I got up and walked out.

‘Alex?’ Anne called after me. ‘
Alex!
’

The next twenty-four hours were preparation.

We stayed in Wales. I didn’t dare travel, and Anne didn’t argue. I spent my time looking ahead for another attack and getting ready for what we were going to do when it happened. Putting the last steps in place didn’t take all that long. I’d had a long time to get ready for this.

Internally, I spent the time on autopilot. I focused all my attention on keeping safe, not letting myself think any further. Anne tried to talk to me a few times; I shrugged her off. I knew she was hurting, but I was too overwhelmed to deal with her problems too. All I could do was shut that part of myself down while I tried to recover.

Nightfall found the two of us sitting in the kitchen. Through the windows, I could see the last traces of light fading from the western sky, and birdsong echoed through the country air. Outside, it was bitterly cold, but the kitchen stove was burning with enough fuel to keep the house warm. The woodpile was well stocked – Anne had gone out to fetch some more, even though we weren’t going to use it.

‘How long do we have?’ Anne asked.

I checked my phone to see that the clock read 5.25. Give or take a couple of hours, it was a week since Talisid’s first call. ‘Thirty-five minutes.’

‘How did they find us?’ Anne asked.

I shrugged.

‘I wish we could go to Arachne’s.’

‘They’d track us down sooner or later. And then Arachne would be on the hit list for sheltering us. I can’t do that to her.’

Anne sighed. ‘I know.’

Silence fell. Time ticked away. ‘If they know where we are, why are they waiting?’ Anne said at last. ‘Why haven’t they just blown up the house?’

‘Why bother?’ I said. ‘For the next—’ I checked. ‘—twenty-seven minutes, there aren’t any official charges against us. We’re just supposed to be brought in for questioning. Once it ticks over to six o’clock, they can kill us on sight.’

‘Do you think that’s what they’ll do?’

‘I’d give it about fifty per cent that we’ll be killed “resisting arrest” and fifty per cent that they’ll try and interrogate us first.’

‘I think if it’s a choice between those two,’ Anne said, ‘I’d rather they got it over with quickly.’

‘I know the feeling.’

More silence. ‘I wish we could have said goodbye,’ Anne said.

‘Yeah.’ There were a lot of people I wished I could have talked to. Luna, Variam, Landis. Arachne. Caldera, in a different way. Even my father, though I wouldn’t have enjoyed that conversation much. ‘Maybe we can do it later.’

‘Do you think Luna and Vari will be okay?’

‘Vari’s got Landis looking out for him,’ I said. ‘And I wrote out some sealed envelopes for Luna a while back. Open-in-the-event-of-my-death stuff. This wasn’t how I expected them to get used, but they’ve got bank account details and places she can go to call in favours. I think she’ll be all right.’

‘As long as no one decides to go after her as well.’

I sighed. ‘Yeah.’

I felt the futures shift and looked to see what had changed. It was more or less what I’d been expecting. ‘Well,’ I said. ‘Looks like it’s about that time.’

‘When are they going to come?’

‘Six o’clock on the dot,’ I said. ‘Bastards are punctual, I’ll give them that.’

Anne got to her feet, folding her coat over one arm. ‘Anyone we know?’

‘Doesn’t look like it. I’m not even sure they’re Keepers.’

‘That’s not a good sign, is it?’

‘No,’ I said. It implied that they didn’t want to have to deal with even a minimal amount of due process. I picked my backpack up from where it had been resting against the wall, then handed Anne a gate stone. ‘Want to do the honours?’

Anne took it, but didn’t use it straight away. ‘I remember the first time you brought me here,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think it was going to be the last part of Britain I saw.’

‘We’ll be back,’ I said. I wasn’t sure how true it was, but I tried to make myself sound confident. ‘Some day.’

Anne nodded. She held up the stone, a soft green light radiating from her hand as she began to channel. I switched off the light – no point in being untidy – but left the fire for the Keepers to deal with. Through the futures, I could sense the attacking force preparing their strike, but by the time it landed, we’d be gone.

The gate spell completed, and Anne and I stepped through and into a new chapter of our lives.

We came out into daylight. We were standing on a steep hillside, trees rising up all around us, the morning sun sending shafts of light through the leaves. The weather was cool but pleasant, just warming up from the long night, and through the trees we could see the bright blue of a beautiful lake, with white-capped mountains rising up over it. Laid out neatly on the shore below were the houses and buildings of a small town, and the air was fresh and clean. Above, puffy white clouds floated in a cerulean sky.

‘Well, that’s it,’ I said. ‘We’re officially outlaws.’

Anne was looking around, smiling. I wondered how the natural scenery appeared to her lifesight. ‘You didn’t tell me it was this beautiful.’

‘Enjoy it while you can.’ I held out my hand. ‘We’re only going to be here long enough to make sure we’re not being followed.’

Anne passed over the gate stone and I put it in my pocket. I’d find a place to stash it once we were a safe distance away. ‘Are we going to stay in the country?’ Anne asked.

I shrugged. ‘One place is pretty much as good as another, for now.’

‘Then let’s stay here.’

‘Eh,’ I said. ‘Why not?’

We started walking down the hillside towards the town below. Its name was Queenstown, and there was a hired car waiting there to take us wherever we needed to go. After that I had three or four alternate routes planned, depending on how things unfolded. ‘You know, it’s been ages since I’ve had a holiday,’ Anne said.

‘Always finding the bright side.’

‘Why did you pick New Zealand?’

‘Suggestion from an enemy.’ I looked at the blue lake and the forested hills beyond. Maradok had been right about one thing. It really was nice this time of year.

Over the next few days, we travelled slowly north-east along New Zealand’s South Island. We stayed in a different place each night, switching between hostels and hotels and private arrangements. It really
was
a holiday, or it would have been if we hadn’t been spending three-quarters of our time checking for pursuit or for traps. But the weather was beautiful, and so was the scenery, and if we had to throw a tail, this was a nice place to do it.

Levistus’s men caught up with us north of Christchurch. It wasn’t a bad ambush, and if we hadn’t been on guard, it might have worked. But it’s hard to ambush a diviner, and it’s hard to sneak up on a life mage who can spot you through a solid wall. Anne and I slipped away, leaving the men to pick through our empty rooms.

The Christchurch ambush made me decide that we were going to have to find somewhere farther afield. New Zealand is a separate magical nation to Britain, but its Council is on good terms with the British one. Instead of going to another English-speaking country, Anne and I moved to Japan, in the suburbs of Nagoya. The Light Council of Japan (or the nearest equivalent they have – they don’t use that name, but it fills the same niche) is famous for its lack of interest in cooperating with outsiders. Technically, as rogue mages, we were breaking their rules by settling down there without clearing it with the authorities, but the Japanese Council are fanatical about preserving their autonomy, and Levistus would have his work cut out for him getting them to authorise any kind of operation in their territory. We settled down in a quiet little apartment down a back street, hoping that Levistus would decide that going after us on another Council’s turf was more trouble than it was worth and give up.

He didn’t.

They didn’t try for an abduction this time. Instead, they just blew up the house. Anne and I watched the fire from a distance, the orange flames a bright glow in the night. ‘So now where?’ Anne asked.

I sighed. ‘Anywhere but here.’

More countries, more cities. The new year came and went, and days turned into weeks. The men chasing us didn’t manage to get so close again, but they didn’t stop either.

Time passed, and we became practised at spotting the signs of danger, developing a sixth sense for when it was time to move on. We saw towns and villages, empty countryside and cities packed with people, but we could never truly settle down. A couple of times we discussed fighting back, but there was little point. It was too much risk for too little gain; we might remove a few of our pursuers, but there would always be more. Sooner or later our pursuers would have to realise that what they were doing wasn’t working.

I hoped.

It was the last week of January.

I leaned back in my chair, interlacing my hands behind my head, and stared at my laptop screen. From the corner of the room the fan whirred, blowing air across the room in lazy arcs, struggling to lessen the heat. Bright sunlight filtered through lace curtains, the windows giving a view out on to the walls of our small compound. From outside the walls I could hear the noises of the city, yells and shouts and cars, but it was barely audible over the chugging roar of the generator. The power was out again, as happened about five times a day on average. You really don’t appreciate just how easy life is with a reliable power grid until you live in a city without one.

Outside, I heard the grating of the gate, and I knew Anne was back. I turned around and listened for the sound of the door opening. ‘Hey,’ Anne called out from the corridor.

‘Everything go okay?’ I called back.

I heard the sound of the fridge door. ‘Oh, it was fine,’ Anne called. ‘They still keep staring at me, though.’

‘What, did you think the novelty would have worn off?’

We were in Lagos, the Nigerian capital. The percentage of Europeans in Nigeria is basically zero, and with our light skin, both Anne and I stood out on the streets like a pair of flashing neon lights, to the point where we’d collect groups of kids following us around. It was a fairly terrible place to hide, but by this point we’d had so many better hiding places fail on us that I’d decided we might as well change things up. Besides, it cut both ways. From what I’d seen, the men working for Levistus didn’t fit in here any better than we did; if and when they came after us, they’d stand out too.

Anne came in. She was wearing a blue sundress that left her arms and shoulders bare; by Nigerian standards the past few days had been cold, which for someone used to the English climate meant ‘hot’ instead of ‘boiling’. ‘I think I’m getting better with the accent,’ she said. ‘I understand what they’re saying about half the time now. Do you like yams?’

‘Never tried them.’

‘Neither have I, but I think they’d be fun to cook.’

With a sigh, I hit the minimise button on the email in front of me, watching it shrink into the corner of the screen. It was two lines long, including the greeting, and had been two lines long for the past hour. It was supposed to be going to my father – sooner or later he was going to notice that I’d dropped out of contact – but I didn’t want to write it. Explaining what had happened would be a nightmare even if I could tell him the truth, which I couldn’t. ‘Have you found a way for us to talk to Luna and Vari?’ Anne asked.