The Illusionists

by Laure Eve

  White looked at him, finally unable to hide his surprise.

  ‘I want to forget everything that ever happened between us,’ said Frith, his voice just a little bit uneven. ‘I wish that the memories you took from me hadn’t come back. It was … bliss, for a short while. To be released from myself. I miss it. But I can’t afford to mope around. Things have happened. Things I need your help with.’

  He paused.

  ‘You’ll be released,’ he said. ‘Free to go back to World, if you like. Or anywhere else, far away from me. I won’t follow. I won’t chase. But if you want a life here … ’

  He left it dangling, tantalising.

  ‘I’ve been told … ’ Frith stopped. ‘That is, I believe you and I are going to be working together in the future. I do believe that, now. But it can only happen if you accept my apology. If you can accept me.’

  The last was said blandly, but that couldn’t disguise the wealth of fear behind it.

  Frith was very afraid that he’d say no.

  Rue looked up as the door opened. The room was comfortably abuzz. After their time together in the Castle, the Talented tended to hang around each other now, as if they couldn’t quite let go. Andrew was often at Red House, even though he had no business being there, and his ministerial duties meant that he could only visit late in the evenings. Rue had taken her old room again, and Lea and Lufe had taken theirs, though she suspected they shared Lufe’s.

  As White came into Red House’s study, the noise dipped for a moment, and then swung back up into the rafters with exclamations of surprise.

  ‘They let you out?’

  ‘White, you’re back!’

  ‘What happened?’

  Rue remained where she was, curled up on a couch, watching. Her heart gave a lazy, delighted kick at the sight of him. White’s eyes found her, but he glanced away again almost immediately.

  Andrew was in front of him, looking serious. ‘White?’ he said. ‘Have they dropped the charges?’

  ‘They have,’ White confirmed.

  The room broke into whoops.

  ‘I will be staying in Angle Tar,’ he said, amidst the noise. The group quietened. ‘I wish to stay here.’

  ‘I’m very glad to hear that,’ said Andrew. He clapped White on the shoulder, looked awkward for a moment, then stepped away.

  ‘What happens next?’ said Lufe.

  White paused. ‘The Castle is closed, and no more … creatures can escape,’ he said. ‘But I have made a promise that we will help to find any still remaining in our world.’ He glanced again at Rue. ‘Wren … the one that killed Wren, the one we saw in the medical hall, is dead. World confirmed it this morning. He was captured somewhere in Ifranland.’

  ‘Thank gods,’ said Lea.

  Rue wasn’t quite sure what she felt. A cold kind of happiness. Regret. Pain, like a needle in her.

  ‘Yes. But we must find any others that managed to get out also.’

  ‘Then we will.’ It was Tulsent. He was hunched up by the fire. His voice was thin but determined. He wanted revenge for Marches – it was all over him.

  Rue waited until the lull had ebbed and White had been congratulated enough. He approached, but she stood before he reached her. He seemed cautious.

  ‘I saw Frith,’ he said, in World. ‘He came to visit.’

  Rue examined his face curiously. Something had happened. ‘Is he angry with you for leaving to find me?’ she said.

  ‘No.’ White groped for words. ‘No, he was the one who got me out of prison.’

  ‘Oh good,’ Rue replied, surprised. ‘Well, apparently I’m pardoned too, so he has been busy.’

  ‘Really?’ Somehow White seemed more shocked by this than anything else. ‘You can stay? Frith said you can stay?’

  ‘I can stay.’

  White seemed to sink into reverie, staring off into nothing.

  ‘What is it?’ said Rue.

  ‘There are some complications. Andrew told me they’ve created a new task force to systematically question any known Talented and assess their threat level to the general populace.’ He paused. ‘Frith is head of this task force.’

  ‘But he’s on our side.’

  ‘Frith has never been on anyone’s side but his own.’

  Rue canted her head. ‘One day,’ she said, ‘you’re going to have to tell me what happened between you and Frith. Because something did.’

  He swallowed. ‘One day I will,’ he said, quietly. ‘For now, just know that I find it hard to trust him.’

  ‘All right. But he’s letting me stay. And you. What does that mean?’

  ‘That he needs us for something. I think … I think he wants to fight World.’

  ‘Fight?’ said Rue, startled.

  White lowered his voice. ‘The task force directive came from World, handed to the Spymaster himself. They’re rounding up the Talented all across World to do who knows what to them. Not just assessing them for potential threat – locking them away without cause. Maybe even executing them. Frith thinks the same thing will start happening here, unless we fight it.’

  Rue felt her insides harden. ‘Then we will,’ she said. ‘We have to prove the good we can do, not just the bad.’

  White looked troubled. ‘They’ll never trust us, Rue. They’re right not to. Look at what happened. Look at what we unleashed. The deaths we caused.’

  ‘Look at the potential you have,’ said a quiet voice behind White.

  Frith was stood off to one side, his hands behind his back, watching them both. How had he come into the room without anyone noticing? More to the point, how had he heard their conversation from over there? He must have the ears of a bat, thought Rue.

  It had been a long time since she’d seen him last, and maybe her memory was faulty, but he seemed different. Unsettled. Which was odd, because Rue had never thought him the kind of person who could ever be unsettled.

  ‘Rue is correct,’ he said. ‘We will prove what a force for good you can be.’

  ‘Everyone hates us,’ White said. He had a tense set to his mouth.

  ‘Public opinion is rather embarrassingly easy to sway,’ Frith replied mildly. Rue ran her eyes over him. She’d forgotten how lithe he was, like a dancer. A man you didn’t notice until he let himself be noticed. For the first time, Rue began to really sense the power he had. You would not want to make an enemy of him.

  She started to feel very glad that she was on his side.

  ‘I will not let us be used,’ White forced out. ‘Never again.’

  ‘Agreed.’

  ‘If I sense manipulation in any way, we disappear.’

  ‘As you have already proved you can.’

  Rue watched them both. This seemed to be White’s battle. She would not interfere.

  Frith cleared his throat. ‘What I said to you earlier still stands. I wish to put the past behind us. If you think you can do the same, then we can begin. There is a lot of work to be done, and I would rather have you – all of you –’ he swept his hand out to the room, ‘at my side. Please. Please think about it.’

  He turned, and began to walk away.

  White opened his mouth, hesitated.

  ‘I am thinking about it,’ he said, finally.

  Frith stopped, and turned on the spot. He seemed happy, and relieved.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, simply.

  Then Frith swivelled to Rue and gave her the strangest look she’d ever had in her life. He seemed as if he were searching for something.

  ‘It’s good to have you back, Rue,’ he said, at last. ‘I look forward to working together.’

  ‘So do I,’ Rue replied, a little taken aback.

  He smiled, bowed and walked off. They watched him close the door to the study quietly behind him.

  ‘That was a funny look,’ said Rue, musingly.

  ‘He’s a funny man,’ White replied, and then sighed. ‘What have I done?’

  ‘The right thing.’

  He glanced at her. ‘Do yo
u really believe that?’

  Rue gave him her firmest look. ‘I do. We have to work together. It’s the only way.’

  White ran his hands over his face. The plait of his hair swayed as he sank onto a chair. Rue sat beside him, and they looked out across the room together, at their Talented. Their friends.

  ‘What about Cho?’ said Rue, after a moment.

  ‘She left me a letter. Cho’s not coming here.’

  Rue felt her whole body heave with disappointment. But how could she have ever thought otherwise? Cho was not this place. This place was not Cho.

  ‘But she can’t stay in World, with Greta after her,’ she said as gently as she could. He was ever painfully aware what he had done to his sister.

  ‘No. They’ve gone to China – her and Livie. They left only a day or two after we did. It seems there are hackers everywhere – they have friends over there, helping them out.’ He paused. ‘They’ll be all right, she thinks. She sounded excited about it, if I’m honest. She blotted half her words on the paper.’

  ‘They have Life in China,’ said Rue, beginning to understand.

  ‘Apparently what they have is much more sophisticated than Life. She could barely contain her glee.’

  Rue smiled. It sounded sort of perfect for Cho. But she would miss her.

  ‘We could visit them, right?’ she said.

  ‘I’ve never been to China.’ He looked a little defeated.

  Rue scoffed. ‘White. We’ve both done things you never even knew were possible in the last few weeks. How’s a piddly little problem like that going to stand in your way?’

  He looked at her strangely. The group murmured and laughed around them. Gaslight flickered up the walls.

  ‘What?’ said Rue, unnerved.

  ‘I need you,’ said White simply.

  Her breath caught.

  ‘Me too,’ she said. ‘You make everything better. You make everything more alive.’

  She reached out and took his hand. His fingers curled around hers. But still there was something in him that held back.

  ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ he said, at last.

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘Of not knowing what will happen between us?’

  Rue shrugged.

  ‘Let’s find out,’ she said.

  EPILOGUE

  ANGLE TAR

  RUE

  The meadow is still today, as if waiting for something to happen.

  Old Stumpy juts into the sky, alone. The young of the village are in morning lessons – he won’t see action until dusk. The grass stirs in the autumn breeze and the trees whisper to themselves. They like gossip as much as the villagers.

  Near the forest line, the air pops gently, and a woman steps out of nothing. The breeze hits her, stirring her short hair, which floats above her ears in a wispy cut that will cause comment amongst the women later on. Her eyes are a piercing blue and she hugs a sling to her chest protectively. The baby inside it niggles and she hushes it, gently jiggling the underside of the sling until it quiets.

  At her feet is a travelling bag, stuffed to the seams. She bends down and hoists it onto her shoulder.

  She should stand and look at it all. She should suck down the air, the smell, those particular things that spark her memory. But there will be time enough for that later on. For now, she’s exhausted, and the baby will need feeding soon.

  She sets off walking until she arrives at the square. It’s a decent mid-morning crowd and she catches some stares as she stalks past. She did her best before coming but her clothes are just a little off, her hair too weird.

  It isn’t until she passes the bakery and the smell catches her that she feels herself swell as if she might burst. She’s close to crying, and that won’t do. It’s been so long since she’s been here. Years and years to her, even though to the village she isn’t even born yet.

  She makes her way into The Four Cocks and straight up to the barman. His name is Pendrew, Pendrew John. But she shouldn’t know that, so she gives him the smile of a stranger.

  ‘All right, Dam?’ says John, with the easy manner of a Tregenna man and the curious eye of a local. ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘I’d like a room, please,’ she says. ‘For a couple of nights, mebbe, until I can find something more permanent.’ The accent comes back to her easily.

  ‘Wanting to stay, is it? Werl, there ain’t much around at the moment, but I should ask at Beads in the morning, the shop along the square a bit. The Dam there, she’ll know more ’n me.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  John eyes her baby. ‘Alone, is it?’

  ‘Yeh.’ She watches him file that away for future gossip.

  ‘How do you call yourself, then?’

  She hesitates for just a fraction. This is the moment she could choose differently, if she wanted.

  But she doesn’t.

  She can’t.

  ‘Penhallow,’ she says. ‘But no Dams or nothing for me, thanks. You can just call me Fernie.’

  ‘And what do you do, then?’

  ‘I’m a hedgewitch.’

  John’s face changes. Perhaps she sees a little bit of suspicion, a little bit of respect unfurl there.

  ‘Ah, right,’ he says. ‘Welcome to the village, then, Fernie.’

  Rue smiles.

  Thank you for choosing a Hot Key book.

  If you want to know more about our authors and what we publish, you can find us online.

  You can start at our website

  www.hotkeybooks.com

  And you can also find us on:

  We hope to see you soon!

  First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hot Key Books

  Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT

  Copyright © Laure Pernette 2014

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978-1-4714-0259-3

  This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher

  www.hotkeybooks.com

  Hot Key Books is part of the Bonnier Publishing Group

  www.bonnierpublishing.com