Master and Apprentice (26 page)

I could still see the cave.

Ian’s vision was superimposed on mine, like a double-exposed photo. Blurred snatches of rough block walls, wood stairs, and a hard-packed dirt floor splattered with blood ghosted over the dark contours of the cave. All the pain was his. My own body felt warm, as if I’d been sitting in front of a fireplace for a few hours. Everything inside me tingled with the pins-and-needles sensation of blood flowing to numb flesh. The magic was waking up.

Holy shit. I’d actually done it—I’d broken into the entire fucking planet. For an instant I could feel the enormity of it, the sheer power it contained, and thought I’d pass out. I’d never experienced anything this intense. I could feel the earth’s heartbeat, a massive, pulsating thrum that wound through and connected everything in existence.

And I knew how to get to Ian. I could move through the earth, the same way the djinn moved through mirrors. His blood on the floor was a compass guiding me there.

The moment I understood, I sank into the cave floor without thinking.

Mirror transportation was cold, but this was hot. Like climbing into a car that had been sitting under the sun in an open parking lot for hours. The heat lasted a few seconds, and then, like a cork surfacing in water, I popped up through dirt into cool darkness. A surprised gasp whooshed out of me. I shook myself and stood.

Ian spit in my face.

“Thanks,” I murmured, wiping away blood and spittle with my jacket sleeve. “Nice to see you too. Hope you haven’t contracted any diseases lately.”

He shivered hard enough to rattle chains. “Thief ?”

“Yeah.” Christ. His voice sounded like metal scraping on pavement. A quick glimpse told me enough to keep from
really looking at him, unless I wanted to lose my last meager meal. “Time to go. Talk later.”

“Destroy me.”

“I can’t.”

“Blast … compassion. Do not wish to live.”

“Will you shut up? I can’t, Ian. I tried. It didn’t work.” An odd combination of adrenaline and terror pulsed through my veins. I’d made it here in one piece. Now, how the fuck was I going to get both of us out in the same condition? I couldn’t go back the way I’d come in. I had nothing to anchor to. This was obviously a basement, but I had no idea where it came out. I’d have to try and get a look around, and then come back for him.

Ian laughed. The haunted sound ripped at my soul and left it bleeding. “No escape,” he whispered. “You will die. Both realms burn.”

“No I won’t. Now be quiet.” My own voice broke at the end. Whether it was the bond between us or just being physically close, I felt the aching emptiness in him every time he spoke. He’d already died with Akila, but his body couldn’t let him finish the job. Saving him was almost crueler than leaving him here. At least the torture occupied his mind for a while.

I couldn’t take the time to explain everything now. Couldn’t even heal him yet. If anyone came down here and found him unhurt, they’d know he had help. “I have to check things out,” I said. “I’m coming back for you. And this is gonna sound weird, but—try not to think about me, all right?” If he managed to pull me into his anguish while I was skulking around the compound, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to maintain a shield.

“No! Please … r-release me.” He tried to look at me, but his eyes wouldn’t focus. Tears shimmered in them. “Begging you.”

I had to turn away. “I can’t.”

A single choked sob followed me when I went invisible and
started up the stairs, inflicting more damage than a bullet in the gut.

Six steps led to a landing, and then a door. Metal, with vents at the top and bottom and long vertical slits in the middle. And a guard on the other side. I could smell him—sharp sweat and stale cigarettes. He didn’t move around much, but I knew he wasn’t asleep because that would be lucky for me. The slits were too thin to shoot him through. I could open the door, even if it was locked. Then I’d either have to hope he went past me to investigate, or try to engage him and take him out before he sounded an alarm.

Before I could make a choice, Ian decided for me.
“Coward!”
he screamed. The chains rattled and clanked, like he was trying to wrench them from the wall. “Should have killed you when I met you. Worthless, sniveling thief. Gods take you to hell!”

The guard banged the door open—right into the shoulder I’d turned to retreat. I grunted at the impact and moved out of range. Maybe he hadn’t heard me over Ian’s raving.

“The fuck’s goin’ on down there?” The guard came through gun first, then stuck his head cautiously around the edge of the door. I recognized him. Kit, the other brother from the forest. And Jesus, he was young. I didn’t realize it while we were fighting for our lives, but the kid couldn’t have been more than fifteen or sixteen. His efforts to hide the fear in his face behind a tough mask failed miserably. “Gahiji-an?”

Another violent chain rattle. “I will rip your head from your shoulders!”

“Aw,
shit.
” He withdrew, and I heard the distinct tones of a phone being dialed.

I couldn’t let him call for help. I lunged through the gap
in the door and cast a lockdown spell at him, barely noticing that it didn’t hurt me like calling on magic usually did. He froze with a finger pressed to one of the numbers. The digital tone stretched out in a continuous whine until I pulled the phone from his hand and thumbed it off. I shoved it in a pocket, and my fingers brushed the barrel of the Sig.

Kill him.

I hoped that cold voice came from the part of me that was connected to Ian and not myself. Either way, there wasn’t a chance in hell of me shooting a kid. Especially not one with his eyes bulging from his head in terror, unable to move and trying desperately to see what was attacking him. I shut the door in an attempt to close off Ian’s lunatic shouts and searched more pockets. Wire, switchblade, napkins—no idea what I was thinking when I grabbed those—handcuffs. Bandanna. Perfect.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, kid.” I stayed invisible while I cuffed his hands behind his back and gagged him with the bandanna. The less he knew about me and my plans, the better for both of us. “I just can’t have you calling for the cavalry yet. Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll find you soon, if you don’t get out of this yourself first.”

I sat him down on a stair and frowned. Best thing would be to make sure he couldn’t get up, at least not easily. The walls at the sides of the stairs were hard-packed dirt. No protrusions, no railings. Maybe I could make something. I put a hand on the wall and thought about hooks.

Heat flowed into me. A spot near the bottom of the wall bulged out, extruded to a point, and curved up. It looked solid enough. I bent to touch it, and found a smooth, cool surface like stone or marble. That’d work.

The kid groaned against the gag. I didn’t have time to
marvel at my new abilities. Had to work fast before he came out of the lockdown. I moved him closer to the hook and slipped the cuff chain over it, then I touched the wall again and made the hook an enclosed loop.

It would’ve held him, if he was just human. But I still didn’t know everything these guys could do—hell, I didn’t even know what I could do—and I wasn’t going to risk being discovered before I got Ian out.

“Sorry, kid,” I said. “You’re gonna have to take a little nap.” I considered whacking his temple with the gun, but if I hit him too hard it’d be the same as putting a bullet there. So I balled a fist and cracked his chin with a hook. His head snapped aside, held for a second, and rolled forward.

After a quick check to make sure he was breathing all right, I sprinted up the rest of the stairs. Ian’s little outburst had cost me a lot of time. I wouldn’t be able to make a thorough canvass of the place—I’d be lucky to find a way out and get back here before someone who’d give me a lot harder time than Kit found out what had happened.

At least I had no further qualms about giving back whatever they wanted to dish out. Harder, if I could manage it. Anyone who threw kids out for cannon fodder like this deserved to suffer. And for once, my conscience agreed.

H
alfway up was another landing, with tunneled hallways leading left and right that suggested there was a lot more underground to this place than just the dungeon they kept Ian in. More stairs bent around the other way. I headed up, and a closed wooden door with no windows greeted me at the top. I stood behind it and listened for a minute. Didn’t hear anything. I cupped my hands on the door and held an ear against them, waited. Still nothing. Of course, that didn’t mean whatever lay outside this door was safe. I pulled the gun out, took a breath, and tried the knob.

It wasn’t locked. For some reason, that fact failed to comfort me.

I pushed the door open a few inches. A light brighter than the bare bulbs in the stairway spilled through the crack. No one shot or shouted at me. I kept going until I could see into the room beyond. This was the place Akila had spied on. Same round table with chairs—empty now, two of them pushed back as though they’d been recently occupied. I couldn’t see much else.

If I waited any longer, I’d probably lose whatever small
opportunity the deserted room gave me. I slipped through. The instant my feet touched the floor, a familiar and unwelcome sensation slammed through me. A massive shock, as if I’d grabbed the spitting end of a severed power line. I’d walked into a snare spell like the one Lynus had cast at Jazz’s place. And I wasn’t invisible anymore.

So much for exploring the compound. At least tripping the spell didn’t seem to alert anyone. Just like back at the house, it only screwed me if they saw me.

I could see the whole room now. It was unoccupied, and didn’t contain much outside the table and chairs. Against the wall to my left was a big free-standing cabinet closed with a padlock. A huge mirror, big enough for two or three to pass through side by side, dominated the right-hand wall. They must’ve used that to invade the house. The building’s entrance was kitty-corner from the basement door. It was ajar. Cigarette smoke and low voices—one male, one female—drifted through from outside. Thanks to Ian’s unintended enhancements, I made out what they were saying.

“We’re gonna get in trouble, Billy.” That was the girl. And I remembered the name Billy from Akila’s thought-form—one of the gate guards. The younger one, but now that I thought about it, they’d both been smooth faced and still in their mid or late teens.

“No, we ain’t. They’re busy. ’Sides, I’m not gonna smoke inside with you.” He paused. “Don’t wanna hurt the baby,” he muttered.

Baby?
Damn, how many more kids were these assholes planning to destroy?

“I didn’t think you cared.”

“Shit, Penny, you know I do.”

“Well, ain’t you sweet.” She let out a breath. “Billy,” she whispered. “D’you think we could … you know … leave?”

“Don’t ever say that.” There was a flatness to his breathy tone. “If Val or Father heard you … just don’t.”

“He ain’t
my
father,” Penny murmured.

“Mine neither. But we don’t wanna fuck around with him, do we? I already done a week of diggin’ just for usin’ the damn mirror to get smokes.”

“Yeah, but at least you got a way out. Me and the girls ain’t got magic like y’all.”

Billy gave a bitter laugh. “Kind of a good thing for me. I’m surprised they don’t make us fuck our cousins, jes’ to see if it’d make the babies stronger.”

Silence stretched out. I told myself to move, get back down to Ian before they came in and saw me, try to figure some way out—but I didn’t listen to my own advice. I wanted to hear what else they’d say, to understand a little more about what the hell had been going on out here.

“I hate this,” Penny said at last. “Why’d we have to guard him?”

“Everybody takes a turn. And it’s Kit’s ass, anyway. He’s closer.”

There was a slight thud, as if she’d slapped his arm. “Don’t say that. I don’t want nothin’ to happen to Kit neither. Damn, he’d kill us soon as look at us, wouldn’t he?”

“I guess.” He paused, probably to drag on his cigarette. “Don’t you worry none. He can’t. You ain’t seen … what they done to him.” The edge of horror in Billy’s voice suggested that he’d seen more than he wanted.

“Yeah,” Penny said. “But you know what he did to the elders. Tore ’em up like meat. I heard he ate ’em some too. And he killed Davie, and—”

“Hush up, Penny.” He changed his harsh tone, and added,
“Won’t be much longer, anyway. Now they got him, Father’s gonna go soon. Val said we’d have the world then. We c’n go anywhere we want, long as we keep to the plan.”

“Yeah, but …” She sighed. “I just don’t wanna be around
him.
” “Guard change in an hour. I got the next shift off.” A grin practically oozed through his words. “You got a room alone now, right? I ain’t tired.”

She giggled. “Me neither.”

Rough as they were, the love between them shone like a torch. My soul ached—for them, for me and Jazz, Ian and Akila, Tory and Lark. So many torn apart by these stupid-ass clan grudges. I decided I’d do everything I could to make sure their torch kept burning. Even if it meant I’d never be lucky because I wasn’t trying to kill them. I’d dealt with bad luck for so long, I almost missed it. At least it’d been reliably bad.

I withdrew to the stairs and closed the door quietly. Still had to get Ian out somehow, and I had the beginnings of an idea. A typical Stupid Donatti plan. So dumb, it just might work.

If I was lucky. Which I wasn’t.

Kit was still out cold. I stepped over him and entered the basement with caution, expecting another volley of curses.

Ian slumped in his chains, head hanging slack. He must’ve exhausted himself screaming. My brilliantly doomed plan included healing him and keeping him calm long enough to explain a few crucial things, like the fact that I was physically unable to destroy him. It was the keeping him calm part I’d have trouble with.

I approached him slowly. He didn’t move, didn’t twitch. I would’ve tapped him to get his attention, but I didn’t see an inch on him that wasn’t bloody or bruised. This close, I couldn’t
escape seeing the damage they’d done to him. It turned my gut inside out.