Alex Verus 5: Hidden

by Benedict Jacka

  We’d reached one of the choke points, where I’d had to squeeze past the remains of a rockfall on the way in. Something in the futures drew my attention, and as I tilted the torch beam down I saw a flash of amber eyes. “We should be far enough,” I told Crystal. “Put the portal there.” I pointed to the middle of the corridor. “I’ll check for where we’ll be coming out. Anne, you’re on lookout.”

  I saw Anne’s eyes drift behind me. To her eyes, I knew the blink fox would be a beacon of life in the darkness. “Just watch for Sagash and his apprentices,” I said, putting a little emphasis on the words. “I’ll handle everything else.”

  Anne gave me a look, then nodded. Crystal had been taking a small item from a hidden pocket. If she’d noticed Anne’s instant of hesitation, she didn’t show it. “Is our destination safe?”

  “Well, I guess that depends on where you keyed that stone, doesn’t it?”

  “If this gate is going to open into a pack of shadows, it would be helpful to know in advance.”

  “I won’t be able to tell until closer to the time,” I said. Which was actually true. “Trust me, if your spell’s about to get us killed, I’ll make sure you don’t finish.”

  Crystal raised her eyebrows, then turned and began focusing on the gate stone. Behind my back I held up a palm towards the blink fox, then one finger, then made a beckoning motion before taking my hand away. I knew it was smart enough to understand speech; I hoped it was smart enough to understand sign language. I didn’t turn around to look, but I sensed the fox draw back slightly.

  Crystal’s gate spell was under way; there was no visible light but I could see the portal beginning to form. Her spellcasting was precise, controlled . . . better than mine, in fact, at least when it came to gates, which was mildly irritating. I let that annoyance occupy the front of my mind, using it as a shield to mask what I was really thinking.

  I hadn’t forgotten that Anne and I were standing within arm’s reach of someone who not only had tried to kill us both multiple times but would do it again with roughly the same level of concern that most people give to clipping their nails. Crystal was standing only a few feet away with her back turned. My hand was only inches from the hilt of Ji-yeong’s shortsword. Very distantly, at a level of my mind that I did not allow myself to focus on, I was aware of how easy it would be to take a step forward, yank her head back as I brought up the sword—

  I forced the thought away. Not yet.

  The gate was forming and I focused. As the future in which the gate materialised became closer, I checked what would happen if I stayed put, went through it, moved left and right. “Clear,” I said just before Crystal finished and the oval portal appeared in the corridor, filling the dark tunnel with sunlight.

  Crystal moved to the gate, looking to either side. Through it I could see the walls of a stone room, sunlight painting the floor. Crystal began to step through and I followed instantly, beckoning behind my back as I did. I felt a flicker of space magic, almost lost in the more powerful signal of the gate, as something blinked through the portal and out of sight.

  We came down into a windowed room with dust motes floating in the air, a double circle of dark green stone set into the floor. “You don’t need to follow quite so closely,” Crystal said over her shoulder as Anne stepped through behind us.

  “Just making sure.” It was the next gate I was worried about. I couldn’t let Crystal use it first; in fact, I didn’t want her to be the one opening the gate at all. Too easy for her to let it close while I was halfway through. “Anne? This the place?”

  Anne nodded. As Crystal let the gate close behind us, Anne moved to the window and looked out, shading her eyes. “Alex?”

  I already knew what I was going to see, but even so, viewing it with my own eyes gave me a chill. There was a swarm of black dots in the sky. I tried to imagine how long we’d last if that many shadows landed on us, and quickly stopped imagining. “Crystal? Does Sagash know that you know about this place?”

  “I imagine we’ll find out within the next few minutes.”

  “Guys?” Anne said, “I don’t want to rush, but about fifty of those shadows just started heading this way.”

  Crystal walked back to where we were standing and held out a fluted rod. She’d drawn it out without my noticing. “I hope you brought a gate stone to an outside location.”

  I looked back at her for a second, then shook it off, took the rod, and went through my pockets for my gate stones. My shop, the safe house, the park . . . I didn’t want Crystal near anywhere I lived. I held the rod and the stone to Anne. “Here.”

  “Keep it touching the end of the rod,” Crystal said. “The encoding will do the rest.” She seemed quite unconcerned. What are you up to?

  Anne moved to the green circle and started focusing on the gate stone, keeping the rod touched to it. You don’t realise how much of a hassle it is to try to get around wards until you finally use the right key. Green light welled up around her hands, and I could already see the gate starting to form; Anne knew this castle very well and the gate stone was doing the rest. Looking ahead, I knew that the shadows were on their way, but they wouldn’t make it in time. For the first time I started to let myself believe that we might actually make it out.

  I couldn’t see the fox, but without turning to look I knew it had moved around to behind us, hiding in the doorway. It would be able to teleport straight through. A green-ringed oval was forming in front of Anne, the portal becoming opaque, and I moved forward casually, placing myself in front of Crystal. Crystal didn’t seem to notice.

  The gate flickered . . . and opened. Leafy branches and green grass showed through the portal, a cool breeze blowing through. It wasn’t so very different from the greener areas of the castle, but it meant everything to me, and the sight of the world outside the shadow realm was a rush. I jumped through, coming down on grass, and into the beams of sunlight that came down through the leaves above. The hum of traffic sounded through the trees, and I could hear distant voices from outside the park. We were in London again, and I felt light-headed with relief. Just for an instant, my guard wasn’t up.

  And against someone who can read your thoughts, an instant’s too long.

  Pain exploded inside my head and my vision greyed out. It felt like being hit with a horrendous headache, distilled and concentrated into a couple of seconds. Nausea and dizziness flooded over me and I stumbled.

  As my eyesight came back, I found myself looking back at the portal. Crystal had stepped through and was just turning to look back into the shadow realm. She was coming around to focus on Anne, and at some distant level I knew that she was going to hit Anne before Anne could follow her through. Crystal couldn’t beat Anne in a fair fight, but she didn’t need to; she just had to break Anne’s concentration on the spell. I fumbled for a weapon, but I was still dazed and my reactions weren’t fast enough.

  There was a flicker of space magic and a red-brown shape latched onto Crystal’s arm. Crystal screamed, jerked away. The blink fox hung on, eyes glinting, teeth sunk into Crystal’s forearm as she frantically tried to shake it off before sending another mindblast into the fox from two feet away.

  The fox dropped, hitting the grass with a thud. Crystal looked up angrily, blood on her arm . . .

  . . . and found herself facing Anne.

  In the couple of seconds Crystal had been distracted, Anne had made it through. The gate flickered and faded behind her as she dropped concentration on the spell, letting the gate stone and focus fall to the grass.

  Anne looked at Crystal and slightly flexed the fingers of one hand.

  Crystal turned and ran. She bolted through the leaves and under the low-hanging branches and was gone, racing footsteps fading into the distance. Anne watched her go, then turned to me. “I’m all right,” I said, pulling myself up and stumbling a little.

  “I know,” Anne said, reachi
ng out to place a hand wreathed in green light against my chest. Energy flowed through me and my head cleared, the pain vanishing. “Are we safe?”

  I looked into the future and saw . . . nothing. No combat, no danger. Crystal wasn’t coming back. “We’re safe.”

  “It’s finished?”

  “It’s finished.”

  Anne nodded, then her legs seemed to give way and she slumped to the ground, kneeling on the grass, head down. I started to reach out, then stopped myself and pulled out my phone, speed-dialling a number. It rang twice before picking up. “Caldera,” a suspicious voice said in my ear. “Who is this?”

  “It’s Verus,” I said. “I’m at the park we use for gating in Camden and so’s Crystal. I last saw her sixty seconds ago heading north.”

  “Crystal? Are you sure?”

  “Just pass it on to whoever’s job this is,” I said wearily. The adrenaline rush was wearing off and I felt utterly exhausted. “I’m going home.”

  “Wait! How did—?”

  I hung up and switched my phone off. To one side, the blink fox had pulled itself upright and was looking at me. “Thanks,” I told it simply.

  The fox blinked at me, then tilted its head up and sniffed the air, nostrils flaring to catch the spring breeze and the scents of grass and flowers. It came to its feet in a flowing motion and trotted away without a backward glance.

  I watched the fox disappear into the undergrowth, then shook my head and held my hand down to Anne. “Let’s go.”

  Anne looked up at me and for an instant I could have sworn she looked surprised. Then she put a hand into mine and let me pull her up. She looked around and took a deep breath, then started walking. I fell into step beside her and we headed home.

  chapter 13

  And that was that. Mostly.

  The Keepers didn’t catch Crystal, which wasn’t exactly a surprise given that she’d probably been out of the country again before I’d finished that phone call. They settled for interrogating us instead. I gave them an edited version of the story which I don’t think made them very happy, especially the “working with Crystal to escape” part. I claimed that it had been under duress and I’d had no other choice, and given that Sagash wasn’t exactly going to come down to the station to give a statement contradicting me, there wasn’t much the Keepers could do to prove otherwise. All the same, I got the definite impression from most of the Keepers I spoke to that they didn’t think saving Anne in exchange for Crystal had been a good trade. I disagreed, but since no one seemed to care very much what I thought, I kept my opinions to myself.

  The Keepers had a try at interrogating Sagash too. I didn’t get to watch, which was a shame since by all accounts it was fairly entertaining. After a brief but eventful exchange of views, Sagash sealed off his shadow realm, leaving the Keepers twiddling their thumbs outside. A full assault on the shadow realm might have been possible, but without Crystal there no one on the Council had the motivation to push it through. Instead the Keepers ended up trying to enforce some weird kind of interdimensional siege, which isn’t really very effective when the residents of the place you’re sieging can gate to any place on earth. On the positive side, it did give Sagash a reason not to come to London after me, which from my point of view was just as well.

  Ironically enough, the one who came out of the whole thing looking the best was Sonder. He’d been the one in charge (on paper at least), and right from the start he’d gone on record insisting that Crystal had been behind Anne’s disappearance, even when no one else believed him. Caldera probably could have poked some holes in that story, but she kept quiet and Sonder got the credit.

  For my part, I had to put up with a certain degree of grilling, but it was nothing I hadn’t done before. It also helped that with Caldera and Variam, I had a couple of Keepers on my side for a change. Compared to the shadow realm, it was actually kind of relaxing.

  | | | | | | | | |

  I got out of the Keeper station in Westminster the day after getting back to London. It was late afternoon and the street was filled with noise, the road busy with cars and buses. Someone was waiting for me on the street, and as I started down the steps I shook my head. “Why does it not surprise me that you knew where I was?”

  “You did send a message,” Talisid pointed out. He looked the same as ever, blending neatly into the Westminster crowds. I started walking north and Talisid fell into step beside me. “I’m glad to see you’re in good shape.”

  “I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you got the story from the Keepers.”

  “The story you and Anne told them, yes.”

  “Yeah, well, I told them the truth, just not all the details.” I paused, not looking at him. “We met Richard.”

  Talisid didn’t break stride. We kept walking along the pavement, adjusting our course to avoid the pedestrians coming the other way. “I see,” Talisid said.

  “You don’t sound surprised.”

  “I had my suspicions.”

  “Yeah, I know. You were right.”

  “I appreciate the information,” Talisid said. “Does this mean you’ve come to a decision on my offer?”

  “I’m glad you brought that up,” I said. I’d had a lot of time to think in between the rounds of interviews by the Keepers. “You know, the more I thought about what you were offering, the more it seemed a little weird. Don’t get me wrong, I could do the job. But so could a lot of other people.”

  “Fewer than you might think.”

  I shrugged. “Either way, I couldn’t shake the feeling that you were putting in just a little more effort than I was worth. So I started thinking about what might be so special about me. And the biggest thing that stood out? My link to Richard.”

  Talisid didn’t answer. “You said you wanted me to work as an investigator,” I said. “You didn’t say what I’d be investigating.” I stopped, looking at Talisid, forcing him to turn and face me. “Richard found us in the shadow realm. He offered me my old job back. I think you’ve known for a while that this might happen. You didn’t want an investigator. You wanted a double agent. Someone close to Richard and reporting back to you. You wanted to recruit me before Richard did.”

  The pedestrian traffic streamed past as Talisid hesitated, people giving us irritated looks. I knew he was deciding what to tell me. “The truth, please,” I said quietly.

  Talisid sighed slightly. “Part of my job involves planning for future possibilities. The possibilities are not always pleasant.”

  “Really.”

  “Our models estimated a low to moderate chance that Richard would attempt to recruit you within two years of his hypothetical return,” Talisid said. “The probability was assessed as being too low to justify the security risk of sharing the information.” He paused. “I requested that you be told regardless. I was overruled.”

  “And that was my role in your model,” I said. “Spying for the Council. Just out of curiosity, what life expectancy did your analysts give me if I said yes?”

  “Believe me when I say that I understand exactly how dangerous Richard is,” Talisid said. “But for that very reason it’s critical that we learn more about his plans. I know how much we would be asking, and I’d be authorised to offer a great deal in exchange.” He paused. “You would probably be doing more to work against Richard’s goals than any other mage in the world.”

  I was silent.

  “Forgive me for asking,” Talisid said. “But when Richard asked you to join him, what was your answer?”

  “I gave him the same answer I’m going to give you right now.” I leant close to Talisid. He didn’t flinch, and I spoke very clearly. “I am not going back to Richard. Not ever.”

  Talisid studied me for a long moment before replying. “He may not give you the choice.”

  I walked away, disappearing into the crowd. Talisid didn’t follow.

/>   | | | | | | | | |

  That evening found me alone in my flat.

  After meeting Talisid, I’d been to visit Arachne. I told her everything that had happened, both in the shadow realm and after. We talked for a long while, and by the time we’d finished and I’d left to make my way home, the sun had set. I was tired, but I was too wired to sleep. I sat at my desk and stared out the window, my thoughts going round in circles.

  I’d been at it for an hour before something made me look up. I turned around on my chair to see a blink fox sitting in the middle of my living room floor, its tail curled around its legs.

  I stared at it. “How did you get in here?”

  The blink fox just looked at me. “I have gate wards specifically to stop people sneaking in like this,” I said. “And I didn’t give you my address.”

  The blink fox yawned, came smoothly to its feet, and disappeared out the door. I got up and followed to see it sitting in my kitchen. It looked at me, then at the fridge, then back at me.

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  The fox blinked twice.

  “Okay, I know I promised I’d help you out, but this is ridiculous. You do not need my help to feed yourself.”

  The fox looked at the fridge again, flicking its tail from side to side. I’d just opened my mouth to say something else when I heard the bell ring downstairs. “Now what?” I muttered, and turned to the door before pointing at the fox. “You stay here.”

  The fox tilted its head.

  | | | | | | | | |

  I opened the shop door. “Hi.”

  “Hey,” Anne said. She looked better, if a little tired. It actually felt a little weird to see her in normal clothes again.

  “The Keepers let you out?”

  “A few hours ago. Vari picked me up.”

  “Oh. Cool.”

  There was an awkward silence. Anne stood on the doorstep. Outside on the street, a car buzzed by.