by R. L. King
“All the same, I’d be happier if they’d stay the hell away from us,” Stone muttered. “Sorry, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for something that’s trying to rip my throat out.”
They picked up their pace after that, keeping close watch for any other potential attackers. Stone didn’t allow his tense vigilance to drop until they reached the outskirts of Drendell proper, and even then he kept magical sight up as much as was practical. Oddly, he noticed the opposite from Jeritha: she’d seemed relatively calm even in the face of the mutant wolves, but as they approached Drendell she slowed her pace.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
“I…don’t like cities,” she said. “Too many people, too…claustrophobic.”
“Were you here alone before? When you were meeting someone at the Underground?”
“No. My companion and I were looking for someone there, but we were separated when the bomb exploded.”
“And now you don’t know if he’s alive?”
“I do. He is alive—he managed to escape by concealing himself until the others left. He won’t help us, though.”
They exited the ruins at the end of a potholed, weed-choked street. Ahead, a cross street was deserted except for a couple of rusting, derelict vehicles parked across from each other.
“Why won’t he help us?” Stone asked.
“He doesn’t trust us, right?” Errin asked.
Jeritha didn’t answer.
Errin motioned for them to duck into an alleyway and faced Jeritha. “Listen,” she said, gently gripping the other woman’s arm. “You don’t have to do this. You guided us here safely through the Wastes—that’s more than we could have expected. We’ll need you to guide us back if we make it out of here, but there’s no reason you have to come with us for the rest. This isn’t your battle.”
Jeritha’s strange, black-eyed gaze came up, and her expression was resolved. “No. I have promised to help, and I will. Let’s go.”
They kept moving. Stone used a disregarding spell to keep the curious from paying much attention to them, though he needn’t have—as the sun came up and the early-morning workers began taking to the streets, no one gave them a second look. Nonetheless, Stone’s reaction to seeing people surprised him. You don’t have to hide anymore, he reminded himself. You can deal with whatever they throw at you now.
They reached the address Errin had without incident. It was a two-story building halfway up a narrow side street lined with nondescript apartments and rooming houses. Their destination was on the second floor, a single-room apartment in the rear.
“Now, we wait,” Errin said, opening the door. “Our contact should be reaching out to us soon.”
Stone insisted on scanning the place with magical sight before entering. When he was satisfied, he dropped into a chair. “Do you lot keep safe houses in all the cities?”
Errin tossed her pack on the apartment’s single bed, pulled something out of it, and placed a small device on the windowsill before pulling the shade down. “We have several places like this, yes. Quite a few of the people who sympathize with us choose to stay in the towns rather than coming to New Argana—they help us move around without being seen.”
“Why don’t they come?” Stone asked. “I can’t imagine why anyone without magic would want to stay in hellholes like this, at the mercy of the mages, if they had an alternative.”
“They have a lot of reasons.” She repeated her performance with the other window, placing another device and lowering the shade before switching on a lamp. “Some have extended families here that they don’t want to leave. Some feel they can do more good by remaining behind and helping others find their way to us, or to the wider resistance movement.”
“There’s a wider movement not connected with you?”
“Oh, yes. Absolutely. A lot of people in the cities don’t even believe we exist.”
“Good point,” Stone admitted. “When I was here looking for Harrison, the only people who’d heard of him thought he was some kind of rumor, or ghost—or that he’d died years ago. It’s possible they were lying to me, but I don’t think so.”
“It’s difficult,” Errin said. She was digging in her pack again, laying out various items on the bed. “New Argana isn’t large yet—we don’t have the infrastructure to bring in thousands of people. Also, if we draw too much attention from the Talented, they might decide it’s worth their while to join forces and try to take us down.”
“Could they do that?”
“I don’t know. Trevor’s powerful, but he’s only one man. We have other mages, of course, and our magical-mechanical technology gives us an edge, but…”
“But what?”
She looked sober. “I’ve heard too many stories of what happened during the war—how powerful those weapons were. If they decided we were enough of a threat to revisit some of that research…who knows what they might be able to do. Already, we’ve heard rumors that some of the younger Talented believe the stories about what happened during the war are exaggerations.”
Jeritha shuddered. “You have just explained why our people refuse to deal with those from the cities, and why most of them won’t even deal with your group. The danger is too great.”
Stone could certainly understand where the Traveler woman was coming from. “So you keep everything as quiet as possible and work under everyone’s radar.”
“I don’t know what ‘radar’ is,” Errin said. “But if you mean we stay underground and spend most of our time helping indirectly, then yes. There might come a time when we’re strong enough that we can try something more overt, but not yet. And that’s why it’s so important to get Trevor back—aside from the fact that he’s our friend, of course. I didn’t think it was possible for them to take him down, but obviously I was wrong. If I was wrong about that, I might be wrong about whether they can get him to talk.”
“And if he tells them about New Argana…about the Nexus…” Unable to sit still any longer, Stone got up and began pacing.
“Exactly. I know some of them suspect something is out there, but I’m sure they don’t know exactly what it is. They don’t know about the Nexus. If they did…well, you met some of them. You know what they’d be likely to do.”
“That might make them willing to put up with each other long enough to do something about it.” Stone remembered the incident at Burning Man, where the top-tier Evil—a group who normally couldn’t stand being in the same room together—put aside their differences long enough to hatch a plan to build a massive portal to their home dimension. If the Evil could do it, the Talented could certainly manage it as well.
“Exactly. If they knew where we were and decided we were a big enough threat—well, they’ve got treaties that forbid using war magic against each other, but we’re already out in the Wastes where nobody goes, so they could easily rationalize using it against us.”
Stone nodded soberly. Human nature, apparently, was as alive and well on Calanar as it was on Earth. “I hate sitting here on our hands waiting to hear from someone.”
“So do I. But we don’t have a choice. Until we have more information, it would be foolish to move.”
It was close to an hour later before the phone rang, startling all three of the apartment’s occupants. Errin leaped from her chair at the kitchen table, where she’d been fiddling with one of her devices, and snatched it up. She said nothing, but listened for close to a minute. “Yes. Three. Two women, one man,” she said at last. Another pause. “Got it.” She hung up.
“What’s the plan?” Stone asked. He’d stopped his incessant pacing to watch her.
“I’ve got an address to meet them. There’s a vehicle behind this building—we’ll take that.” She began gathering the gear she’d removed from the backpack and stowing it back inside.
“Do they know where Harrison is?”
“They won’t say anything on the phone. Let’s go.”
Jeritha rose from the bed; Errin had urged her
to rest while she could. “Are you sure you trust these people?”
Errin retrieved her devices from the two windowsills and put them in her pockets. “As much as we can. We’ll be careful. Come on.”
They found the vehicle, a blocky sedan covered half in gray primer and half in rust, parked where Errin had said it would be. She got behind the wheel and removed the keys from under the sun visor. Stone took shotgun, and Jeritha ducked low in the back seat.
When Errin fired the car up, it shuddered and rattled, loud popping backfires erupting from its battered exhaust pipe. Stone doubted the thing would make it more than a mile—until they drove off. Despite all the noise and shaking, the car rode as if on a cushion of air. “Nice,” he said. “Magic?”
“Actually, no.” Errin grinned, turning a corner. “The car might look like it’s ready for the scrap-heap, and they’ve added a few ‘extras’ to make it sound like it too, but under the hood it’s beautiful. Tires, too.”
“Well, that’s encouraging, at least.” He kept magical sight up as they drove, watching the auras as they passed more people on their way to work. To his surprise, he soon recognized their surroundings. Some of the buildings and shops they passed were the same ones where he’d made his deliveries for Faran’s butcher shop. His hand tightened on the armrest as they passed the burned-out hulk of the shop itself. Apparently nobody had bothered to rebuild it yet; blackened beams stuck up from its ruined foundation, and the light morning rain pattered over piles of rubble.
“Are you all right?” Errin asked, glancing over at him.
He pointed. “The Talented murdered the people who owned that shop. For helping me.” His voice came out cold and strained.
She gripped the steering wheel harder. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I. I almost want a couple of those entitled bastards to try having a go at me now—let them see what happens when the prey fights back.”
“I know,” she said gently, reaching across to give his arm a brief squeeze. “I get it. But we need to wait, even if you do see any of them. We can’t blow our cover.”
“Don’t worry—I can control myself, unlike them. But once we get Harrison out, if any of them try anything, they’ll find out what a mistake that was.”
They drove a few more blocks, passing a few other vehicles and more pedestrians, then turned on a narrow side street. Errin slowed the car. “Do either of you two see anyone?”
Stone switched to magical sight and scanned the area, including the roofs of nearby buildings. “No. If they’re here, they’re hiding well.”
“I see no one,” Jeritha confirmed, peering over the back seat.
“Good.” Errin made a quick right into a narrow garage, then jumped out and pulled its door shut behind them. She retrieved her pack, placed one of her devices on the car’s bumper, and motioned toward the door at the other end.
The door was locked, with a mechanical pushbutton panel above it. Errin tapped in the code and pushed it open. Beyond was a short hallway with another door at the end. That one, also locked, opened onto a small abandoned shop, its display window and the smaller one over its door boarded up with plywood.
Stone held up a light spell, illuminating an old wooden counter, a floor covered in trash and debris, and several broken chairs. Whatever the shop had been before, all its fixtures had been removed, either on purpose or by scavengers.
“Nice place,” he said. “When does this person get here?”
“I am already here,” said a disembodied voice.
40
Stone, Errin, and Jeritha all spun toward the counter, the mages gathering magic and Errin swinging her gun around.
“Stop,” the voice urged. “I am a friend.”
A figure shimmered into being behind the counter: a tall, dark-haired man with a neatly-trimmed beard. Despite his obvious magic, he was clad not in the Talented’s standard high-collared long coat, but a simple shirt, jacket, and trousers, such as any middle-class citizen of Drendell might wear.
Stone didn’t relax, and neither did Jeritha. Between them, though, Errin lowered the gun. “Who sent you?” she asked.
“Our mutual friend, who has a fondness for fine wine,” the man said. “Have you brought any today?”
“The vines won’t be ready for another month,” Errin replied. The last of the tension drained from her shoulders. “What has our friend discovered?”
The man didn’t answer right away; his gaze moved over Stone and finally settled on Jeritha. “A Traveler?”
“We trust her,” Errin said. “She saved our lives during the raid at the Underground, and helped us come here. You can speak in her presence.”
He considered a moment, then looked at Stone. “And this man?”
“You needn’t worry about him. He’s an old friend of the man we’re looking for. We trust him completely as well.”
The man seemed to take Errin’s word for it, nodding once. “All right, then. We must speak quickly—I cannot be out of communication for long, or dangerous people may become suspicious.”
“Tell us the plan. Will our friend be able to help us?”
He motioned for them to come closer to him; when they did, he raised his hand and an almost transparent bubble flowered around them. “It will not be easy to get to the man you seek. They’re taking great care with him.”
“Is he in Temolan?”
“Yes. They’re holding him beneath the surface, in a specially-prepared magic-null field.”
“I didn’t know they had such a thing,” Errin said, her jaw tightening.
“It is experimental. One of the Council members has assembled a small team of highly intelligent and unethical researchers to work on her special projects.”
“Are those two mad alchemists part of this team?” Stone asked.
The man looked surprised that he was aware of them. “Yes. Millia and Vestereth. They are brilliant, particularly when working together, but they have little in the way of morals.”
“So they’ve got him drugged,” Errin said. She looked as angry as Stone felt, but kept it under tight control.
“Yes. Aside from their intention to keep him docile and prevent him from using his magic, they have been trying different formulations on him in an attempt to induce him to reveal information about his organization and where he originates.”
Damn. “Do you know if they’ve gotten anything out of him yet?” Stone asked.
“I am not certain—I’m not privy to their sessions, nor is our friend. However, our friend has heard a rumor that they are fascinated by his unusual resilience, and are trying to determine its cause.”
“Bloody hell…” Stone murmured. “So in addition to torturing him for information, they’re experimenting on him?”
“So it would seem,” the man said. “It has not been long, of course, so I doubt they have had time to do too much yet. But from what I know of them…”
“What about the others?” Errin asked. “The rest of this team?”
“There are five in all, including Millia and Vestereth. Some of the finest—and most dangerous—minds in Temolan. From what our friend has heard, all of them have been redirected to this project by their patron.”
“And who is that?” Errin asked. “Which of the Council members? Or is there more than one?”
“Only one as far as our friend is aware. She has always been…unconventional in her methods.”
“I know who you’re talking about.” Errin let her breath out. “Of course, it’s got to be her. So the rest of the Council doesn’t know about it?”
“Oh, no doubt they do, if our friend is aware. They do not entirely approve, but they turn a blind eye because they recognize the potential usefulness of her research if the political climate should change at some future date.”
“You mean they’ll be all too happy to make use of her unethical experiments if the situation between the mage houses goes south at some point,” Stone said.
“Just so, yes.”
“Not at present, but I know where he will be this evening.”
“They’re moving him?”
“Yes. It was not possible to keep the raid at the Underground a secret from the other Council members, and rumors are already circulating about who they have captured. That is how our friend heard about it. They insist on being apprised of the situation, so those who have captured him have arranged to move him to a more neutral location.”
“And what do they plan to do there?” Stone asked.
“That I do not know. If previous experience serves, they will set up some sort of display to impress the others with how far their research has progressed.” He glanced around, looking suddenly fearful. “I must go now—I’ve already stayed too long.” From his pocket he pulled an envelope, which he handed to Errin. “This contains directions for how to get to another location. Give me an hour to have your identification prepared, then go there and you’ll find it, disguises, and directions for how to get to Temolan.”
“Got it,” Errin said, pocketing the envelope. She gripped his arm. “Thank you. For everything. I know how much you’re risking.”
The man studied their faces, looking serious. “You will need to be very careful, especially with a Traveler and a non-Talented. I’ve arranged for you to meet someone once you arrive in Temolan, but getting to him will involve some risk.”
“We’ll manage,” Stone said. “Thank you.”
“Good luck to you,” the man said. “Remember, give me an hour before you go to that address.” He stepped back, the bubble faded, and then after a moment so did he.
Stone let his breath out. “I feel like I’m in some kind of bloody spy film. I keep expecting a squad of assassins to show up any second.”
“The Talented don’t play around,” Errin said. “Most of them don’t have a lot of ambition, but we represent a significant threat to their way of life. They’re far too arrogant to sit still for that.”
