“So?”
Vihaela stroked the bark of the tree, not looking at me. “So?”
“What are you going to do?”
“Well, Richard has a job he wants done, and he asked me to brief you. I could do that.” And then Vihaela turned towards me, and all of a sudden she wasn’t smiling anymore. “Or then again, I could paralyse you, strip you of your clothes and those pathetic weapons you’re carrying, take you down to my dungeons, and torture you to death.”
I held very still, watching the Dark mage. Vihaela walked towards me, her movements graceful and sinuous, and she didn’t take her eyes off mine. “I’ve never broken a diviner before. As I understand it, you’d be able to see what I was going to do in advance. Which would mean I’d lose the element of surprise, but then, couldn’t that be its own form of punishment? To know exactly what’s going to happen to you, and not be able to do a thing to stop it?” Vihaela leant forward onto the chair, forcing me to turn my head farther to keep her in view. “What do you think?”
I didn’t move. Vihaela was leaning forward, her hands clasped flat over the back of the chair. Dark brown eyes in a dark brown face stared at me from only inches away. She was within touching distance, but I didn’t reach for any of the weapons in my clothes. I knew I wouldn’t be fast enough. “I think Richard might have a problem with that.”
“Richard doesn’t always get what he wants,” Vihaela said calmly.
The futures spread out before me, twisting and changing, and the patterns they made sent a spike of fear through me. Vihaela wasn’t definitely going to attack . . . but she wasn’t definitely not going to attack, either, and if she decided she wanted it badly enough, Richard’s name wouldn’t stop her. She reached out with one finger and traced it along my cheekbone, her eyes dark and enigmatic, and I stopped myself from flinching. Vihaela is a hybrid rather than a pure life mage, and unlike Anne, she doesn’t need to touch you to kill you. Range wouldn’t be any defence against her. But the touch was a threat all the same, and this close I could sense the spells inside her, complex and powerful, ready to lash out to bind or cripple.
I looked Vihaela straight in the eyes. “How much is Richard paying you?”
Vihaela threw her head back and laughed. She stood up, smiling again, and just that fast, the futures of violence were gone. “I do like you, Verus.” She made it sound as though I were a stray cat. “The answer is: more than you can match. But don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. At least, not right now.” She sat back down in her chair, her manner suddenly businesslike. “Let’s get to work.”
I nodded, not showing my relief. “What’s the job?”
“Richard wants you to retrieve an item currently located in a deep shadow realm,” Vihaela said. “It’s called a dreamstone. Ah, I see that rings a bell.”
I’d tried to hide my reaction, but Vihaela had caught it anyway. “I’ve heard the name.”
“Good. Now, shut up and listen.”
I shut up and listened. Vihaela gave me the details about the deep shadow realm, her descriptions quick and efficient, and it didn’t take me long to realise that she was an expert on the subject. It’s not hard to see why Richard chose Vihaela for his inner circle. What she does, she does very well.
Only at the very end did she revert to form. “Any questions?”
“Just one,” I said. “How soon does Richard want this?”
“As long as it arrives, he’s not picky.”
I nodded and rose to my feet.
“Oh, Verus?”
I paused.
“Do bear in mind that you’re not working for the Keepers this time. The Council is quite happy to send mages out on missions and have them come back empty-handed. Richard is . . . less tolerant, shall we say, of people who fail to carry out instructions? I wouldn’t think he’s as likely as Marannis to demand I make an example. But then again, maybe he would.”
I looked back at Vihaela. “You can tell Richard,” I said, “that the message has been received.”
“Good.” Vihaela waved. “Have fun.”
chapter 9
It was later the same day.
“So it’s definitely going to be in August?” I asked.
“They said August, but it’s the Council,” Variam said. “I’ll count myself lucky if it’s done by autumn.”
“Funny coincidence that you start prepping for your journeyman tests within a few months of Luna doing hers.”
Variam gave me a suspicious look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just wondering if she’s trying to give you orders,” I said. “You know, seeing as she’s a journeyman and you aren’t.”
Variam tried to look expressionless, and did it so badly that I burst out laughing. Variam held the stone-faced look for a few seconds more, then reluctantly cracked a smile. “She told you?”
“You think I couldn’t guess?”
We were sitting in Arachne’s cave, warm lights shining down onto cloth and sofas and rolls of thread. Arachne herself was crouched over a table just a little way away, working on some new creation, her front legs deft and quick as she wove. “You getting any more shit from the Keepers?” Variam asked.
“About what happened at the Vault?” I said. “No, but that’s probably because they don’t want the embarrassment of admitting that, one, they sent me on a suicide mission, and two, they failed at it.”
Variam grunted. “Landis said he talked to Rain. He thinks he can probably ask enough awkward questions to stop that pair from trying any more abductions.”
“Probably means they’ll just find another way, but every little helps.”
The sound of voices made us look up as Luna and Anne walked in. Anne was in the middle of telling Luna some story or other, but it was Luna I looked at most keenly, and to my eyes she looked better. I still didn’t know what she was doing when she wasn’t with us, but whatever it was, she seemed to have recovered her confidence.
“Hello, Anne,” Arachne said warmly. “Luna, you’re looking well. It’s been a while.”
“Oh,” Luna said, looking embarrassed. “Sorry, I’ve been meaning to stop by, but . . .”
“It’s no trouble.” Arachne gestured to me. “Alex, are you ready?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s get started.”
Anne and Luna sat on a sofa. With Variam, they formed a semicircle, and all of them looked expectantly at me. I looked between the three of their faces, young and alert and trusting, and for a moment I felt a pang. Should I be involving them in this?
But they were here willingly; all three had made that clear. And out of all the mages in Britain, while there might be plenty who were stronger, there were none I’d rather have with me. I just hoped I wasn’t leading them somewhere I shouldn’t.
“I met Vihaela this morning,” I began. “The good news, as you can see, is that I’m in one piece. The bad news is that Anne and I now have a mission. It’s going to be difficult and dangerous, and part of the reason that it’s dangerous is that we don’t know exactly how it’ll be dangerous.” I took a breath. “If you’re willing, I could really use your help.”
The three of them looked at me, then Luna and Variam looked at each other. “Wow,” Luna said.
“Wow?”
“You’re actually asking us for help.”
“Well . . . yes.”
“Normally you don’t do that until you’ve been stabbed or something,” Luna said. “Or unless you’re so blatantly outmatched that even you can’t think of any way to get out of it.”