by Mark Hayden
I stood up, a little more steadily, and went to give her a hug. Perhaps it was because of the audience, because for once she hugged me back. For a second. Then she disengaged and reached into her bag. She pulled out and handed over an MP3 player with headphones. It said Property of Blackfriars Undercroft in printed tape on the side.
‘Vicky has left you a recorded message,’ said Mum. ‘She made it a few hours ago.’
I suddenly realised that I had no idea of the time. I glanced at my watch, and it wasn’t there.
‘Five o’clock in the afternoon,’ said Myfanwy. ‘I’ll get your stuff in a minute. We had to take it off before the procedure.’
Mother picked up her coat and gripped my hand before giving me a kiss. Her parting words were not addressed to me, but to Myfanwy. ‘Take good care of the house, dear. It’s a burden, yes, but I was happy there.’
Chris Kelly, re-shirted, shook my hand, patted me on the shoulder and took my mother away.
‘You should listen to that,’ said Myfanwy. ‘If you ask Septimus nicely, he’ll let you take it to Cell 1 and switch on the extractors. It’s the only smoker’s cell, and don’t worry, the Limbo Chamber has been deactivated.’
‘If you must,’ sighed the Bailiff. ‘I’ll get the keys.’
I took my tea, some biscuits and the MP3 player into the empty room and sat listening to Vicky’s account of the bombing.
I took a few minutes to digest what I’d heard. I was worried for Cora, yes, and angry at the pointless waste of three lives, but more than anything, I was boiling with rage on behalf of the Watch.
During all the years I spent in Afghanistan and Iraq, I never forgot that we were aliens. Well-meaning aliens, mostly, but that was not our land.
This is my land. These are my people, and only someone with a truly evil heart could do this.
I returned to the Wardroom full of questions. The first answer I got was not the one I’d been expecting. Myfanwy was standing with one boot off, rinsing a sock.
‘My god, you didn’t…’
‘Sorry, Conrad, but I had no choice.’
‘Words fail me.’
She put the sock on a radiator and pointed to the table. ‘Let’s eat. You’ll be starving.’
She took the clingfilm off several plates of sandwiches and cakes, and she was right. I was starving. She poured more tea and joined me at the table, grabbing a plate.
‘You know Hannah got the others awake, yeah?’ she said. I nodded. ‘She couldn’t wake you. Needed a male Mage and a special place.’
‘Something to do with Fraternity magick, according to Vicky.’
‘Yeah. It’s called something different in Welsh.’ She tipped her head to one side. ‘Doesn’t translate well. Suppose I’ll have to get used to all these Alchemy terms if I’m going to be living with you and hanging round with Vicky.’
I chewed a rough-cut doorstop of cheese and tomato to avoid saying that this wasn’t my interpretation of her sentence from the court.
She carried on, oblivious. ‘Not my area of expertise, obvs, but it has to do with creating a displaced link. The Warden drew Lux from all the men, and he used a sort of net. Like fishing. Because he died with the bond active, the nets stayed in place. With you, he did something I couldn’t begin to understand. To loosen the net, we had to put you in the Enhanced Limbo Chamber at the end. The one that doesn’t just block Lux, it drains it, too.’
‘No wonder I felt like shit when I woke up. I’ve never been so disorientated in my life. Worse than being drunk on a chopper ride through a thunderstorm.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. My only real talents in magick are orientation and a bit of Geomancy.’
‘Orientation? What’s that?’
‘Never mind. Carry on.’
‘It had to be a team effort. Septimus performed the procedure. When the net loosened, he peeled it away, but to do that he needed Lux, so Chris created a temporary Leybridge from the antechamber, and I anchored.’ She looked down. ‘It’s what you did when we revived Vicky. You did that on instinct; I had to be shown.’
‘Thank you, Myfanwy. Another debt I owe you. Doesn’t explain the sock, though.’
‘Septimus shouted that you were going to convulse. He couldn’t move, and the cell was empty. Nothing there. I took my sock off so they could shove it in your mouth to stop you gagging or biting your tongue. Don’t worry, it was new on this morning. Brand new.’
Suddenly, the cheese sandwich was very dry. I took a big slurp of tea.
I stared at Myfanwy for a second, until she met my eye. ‘What have they told you?’ I asked. She looked down.
‘Nothing that I didn’t see with my own eyes. As soon as I got there, Annelise tied me up like a horse outside the saloon and stuck a Silence on me while all the shit happened. Those two lads took the Dean out to the ambulance and Maxine took Vicky’s mam and your dads away. All that, I could see from the other side of the room. Didn’t need to hear anything. Then there was arguing.’ She shrugged. ‘Finally, the Constable came over and told me to go with you and Chris. The only thing that’s been discussed in my presence was what related directly to the Charm on your Imprint.’ She smiled. ‘And I talked to your mam. Seems you hadn’t got round to telling her about me.’
‘Ah.’
‘Don’t worry. I told her I was under house arrest for three years. I didn’t tell her why, and she didn’t ask. She was too worried about you to care, really.’
It was time for cake. I’ve no idea what it was, but it was nutty and very tasty. ‘Has anyone else been in touch?’
She gave me a sly grin. ‘You mean your girlfriend? You never mentioned her.’
‘I was thinking about Vicky. Mina can handle herself.’
She shook her head. ‘If they have, no one’s told me. We’ve been working on you for most of the day.’
Septimus reappeared and helped himself to a slice of the cake. ‘Mmm. Gorgeous,’ he said, and looked at me. ‘Have you met Steph? My daughter? She’s one of my Deputies, and a mad baker.’
‘No,’ said Myfanwy. ‘She hasn’t been on duty when you’ve been here. And don’t worry, I’ve got the recipe.’
‘Right,’ said Septimus. ‘I’ve been on the phone to let Merlyn’s Tower know that you’re awake. There was a message for you.’
This didn’t sound good. In a situation like this, I should be having a conversation with Hannah myself. ‘Yes?’
He looked at a Post-it note. ‘Mrs Haynes told me to say this: you need rest and protection, and Myfanwy needs to get to Clerkswell in your company. Rick James is on his way to town to collect you and take you back. He’ll give you more details.’ He looked up at me. ‘And before you ask, I do know that it wasn’t Rick in the Duke of Albion’s Room. It was a Glamour, and it had something to do with the Fae Countess. They are currently prime suspects.’
‘Duw God,’ said Myfanwy. ‘Really?’
‘It must have been a hell of a Glamour to fool Vicky,’ I added. ‘And Cora, not to mention Sir Roland.’
Septimus pulled his beard and shrugged with one shoulder. A very economical shrug, that. He probably learnt it in the Navy. ‘Just so you know,’ he said. ‘Rick is picking up your stuff, and your car, Conrad, and he’ll be here in half an hour. I’ll do the binding and you can wait upstairs.’
There was a certain amount of packing, getting dressed and some complaints about wet socks, then we were ready.
Septimus checked a few details, then took a small spool of fine silver cord. Real silver. He carefully knotted lengths around both of Myfanwy’s wrists, and I saw why she had a long-sleeved tunic. He took another length and made an elegant loop which he passed over Myfanwy’s head and dropped round her neck. He fastened a final bracelet of cord round my left wrist. It tightened all of its own, not enough to hurt, but enough for me to feel a slight drain on My Lux.
He explained it like this. ‘You have to keep each other in sight for the whole journey, comfort breaks included. Myfanwy can
’t project magick beyond her body, but that’s not the biggy. At dawn tomorrow, all three of her cords will tighten and shrink to nothing.’
‘In other words, it will decapitate me,’ added Myfanwy. ‘So no taking the scenic route, all right?’
That was rather alarming. Even more alarming was what Septimus said next.
‘The only way to prevent that is to cut her cords. If you do that outside the parish of Clerkswell, or tamper with the one round your wrist, you’ll lose your left hand.’
‘No pressure, then,’ said Myfanwy.
As we rode up in the lift, I started to get a bit twitchy. Even if I wasn’t the target of the bomb, I take it very personally when people set up explosive devices near me. I couldn’t avoid the thought that someone wanted me dead very badly. Why they wanted me dead was a distraction. For now, I had to focus on staying alive.
Septimus was unlocking the final magickal door to the service corridor. ‘Who knows I’m here?’ I asked.
Myfanwy spoke first. ‘Me, Chris Kelly and the Constable were the only ones left when they made the final decision. I know that much. Vicky came a bit later, just to make that recording.’
Septimus shook his head. ‘I haven’t told anyone, but I’m not really in the loop. Do you want me to wait with you?’
‘Have you got an Ancile?’
‘Not on me, no.’
‘Then I’ll take my chances.’
‘Oy,’ said Myfanwy. ‘You mean we’ll take our chances. I’m a sitting duck next to you.’
‘Good luck,’ said Septimus.
Myfanwy muttered something, and I shook his hand. ‘Thank you.’
Before he shut the door behind him, Myfanwy reached up and gave him a hug. ‘You’re a good man,’ she said. He blushed and disappeared.
The service corridor opens just down from the taxi rank. It has an overhang and a small doorway. No one could see us, except for the taxis pulling away with fares on board. I stood downwind of Myfanwy and lit a cigarette.
‘This isn’t normal, I suppose,’ she said.
‘There’s nothing normal about my life, these days.’
‘No, I meant that I got talking to your mam. I know a lot about you, and you know nothing about me. Not really. You know I’m not married, don’t you? Of course you do.’
‘I know you had a thing for Rhein ap Iorwen, and I know it wasn’t reciprocated. I’m sorry about that.’
She tilted her head. ‘Are you sorry that he didn’t care for me, or sorry that you killed him?’
I knew we’d have to have this conversation, but I hadn’t expected to have it in a station doorway. Myfanwy had hatched the Dragon and been in love with Rhein; both the Dragon and the Hunter had died at my hand, so I wasn’t surprised that it had come up so soon. Before I could get out my carefully planned question, she started up again.
‘I had a lot of time to think in the Undercroft. Not a lot else to do, really. My barrister showed me some of the papers, and he asked around, but no one who knows what really happened was saying very much, and not to me or Gwyddno. Listen, Conrad, I don’t blame you, but just to clear the air, could you tell me what happened after I took Vicky to the hospital?’
The Brotherhood of the Dragon had turned on Myfanwy when she objected to their plans for Welshfire, the Dragon. They’d taken her magick and tied her up in her car as bait for a trap that Vicky and I fell into.
‘If you promise to shut up for a bit and let me get a word in, Myvvy, I will,’ I said.
‘Myvvy! You sound like my dad.’
‘You’re not the first person to say I sound like their father. How old are you anyway? And yes, it is my business.’
‘I don’t see how.’
‘You’re going to have to give me your date of birth for the insurance policy.’
‘Oh. I’m twenty-six. How old are you?’
‘Thirty-seven, though I don’t feel like it at the moment.’
‘Smoking is very bad for you. I hope you don’t smoke in the house. Is it really such a barn of a place?’
‘Do you want my whole history, or just the bit with the Dragon?’
‘Oh, the Dragon, please.’
‘Good. Just tell me, from the moment I rescued you, what would have been your preferred outcome?’
‘You didn’t rescue me. I didn’t need rescuing.’
‘Myfanwy, you were tied up and they were about to release a man-eating Dragon. I’d call that a rescue.’
She’d been rummaging in her handbag while the conversation pinged back and forth. She found what she’d been looking for and held it up. ‘Will there be an iPhone charger in the car?’
‘No. We can stop at Beaconsfield Services for you to get one. They have disabled toilets we can share, and there’s a phone bits shop there. Answer my question: what would you have liked to happen?’
She slowly put the dead phone back in her bag, and didn’t look at me when she spoke. ‘It was too late. They’d already done the Blasu Diwethaf by then, and Welshfire had a taste for magickal human flesh. I suppose the best I could have hoped for was a quick end for Welshfire and a reduced sentence for Rhein.’
‘Did you really do any thinking in the Undercroft, or did you just talk to yourself?’
‘Don’t be nasty.’
‘I wasn’t. Just put yourself in my shoes. I had to stand back and watch Rhein release Welshfire. After that, he wanted some sport, didn’t he? Instead of giving the Dragon a head start and hunting her down, he was going to unleash her on the sheep – and farmers – of the Brecon Beacons. I couldn’t let that happen.’
‘I suppose not.’
I really snapped at her. ‘There’s no supposing about it, Myfanwy. If I hadn’t stepped in, how would you have explained to some poor parents that their little boy had been a tasty snack for your Dragon?’
‘It wasn’t supposed to be like that! I don’t think I can cope with this. I feel trapped already.’
‘Perhaps this wasn’t the best topic of conversation.’
‘Just finish the story.’
‘What happened was this. I used a trick to lure Welshfire back down the hill and into a trap. Rhein appeared and they fought. When the trap went off, they were busy knocking seven shades of shit out of each other. I nearly got fried. She spoke to me, you know.’
‘Who did? Welshfire?’
‘Yes. She said – in Welsh – “Where’s Guinevere?”’
‘What? No. Why?’
‘I’m afraid so. They’d promised her Surwen and Gwyddno’s daughter to eat for the Blasu Diwethaf, and Welshfire was disappointed.’
She looked suitably appalled. One day, I hope, she’ll come to realise that she was a useful idiot to the Brotherhood. In fact, that day needs to come sooner rather than later.
‘Listen, Myfanwy, I wouldn’t have offered my home as a prison if I didn’t trust you, but I absolutely do not trust Adaryn ap Owain.’
‘It was mostly Surwen,’ she replied. ‘Adaryn was the banker and she was going to be the public face.’
‘Oh no. They were a team, and Adaryn was the senior partner. She’s anathema now. Not only has every Circle of Mages been warned about her, even MI5 have her on a watch list. Don’t forget, it was her who stopped Vicky’s heart.’
‘I don’t want anything to do with her, all right?’
‘There’s more to it than that. She might want something to do with you. She might get in touch. She might want to use you. She might be behind the bombing.’
‘I …’ She stopped, and for moment she really thought about what I’d said. ‘I give you my word, Conrad, that if she gets in touch, I’ll tell you.’
‘Good.’
6 — Homecoming
It was time to check my phone. It had pinged frantically when we emerged from the Undercroft, but I’d wanted to have that conversation with Myfanwy first.
In short, Mina was worried, but safely installed in Elvenham House. She’d finished her message by saying, Your house is huge, cold and intimida
ting. A bit like you in a bad mood. Vicky had also arrived. I sent them both a message saying Awake. Am fine. Waiting for a lift. More soon. I added a bit to Mina’s message, as you’d expect for the woman I love. By the time I’d pressed Send, a non-taxi was heading down the ramp.
The car was either my actual Volvo XC70 or a very close facsimile of it, and I caught a glimpse of a black face in the driving seat before I retreated into the shadows. Myfanwy is entirely too suggestible for her own good, which right now was good news for me. And her.
‘Myfanwy, go up to the car and talk through the window.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re not the target. If it’s the enemy, they won’t strike at you.’
‘Okay…’
‘Just ask Rick what Vicky’s like in bed.’
‘What!’
‘If it’s really Rick, you’ll know from his response. Quick!’
She ran to the car and pressed her thighs against the door to stop the driver opening it. The window slid down. I couldn’t hear what was said, but I saw Myfanwy’s reaction. After a second, she put her hand through the window and patted the driver, now confirmed as Rick, on the shoulder and stepped back. I stepped forwards.
I thought about getting in the front, but for a second, I couldn’t see Myfanwy and there was a tug on my wrist from the silver cord, so I installed her in the back and spoke to Rick.
‘Way to go, bro,’ he said. ‘How to spot the Glamour without using magick. Not sure Vicky will thank you for spilling that, but better safe than sorry, eh?’
‘It would have come out sooner or later. Myfanwy has no filter, and Vicky’s a terrible liar.’
‘Hey, I heard that,’ came a voice from the back.
‘Push that button, will you, Rick? I need the Hammer from the boot.’
‘I’m ahead of you, bro.’
He pointed to the Dwarven crafted case on the front seat, and with some relief I got out the Hammer. The single round Hannah gave me is elsewhere in a safe place, but I needed the Hammer because it has my Ancile stamped on the grip. I felt a lot better with that. I got into the back and told Rick how to program the Satnav for Elvenham House. He set off, and as soon as the ETA appeared, I sent messages.
