I walked back into the room. Luna and Sonder were still there, throwing glances at my body. Somehow I knew how to break the connection. I walked into my body, layering my mental self over my physical one, placing my hand over where my real hand grasped the crystal. There was a moment of dizziness, then-
‘-be in trouble.’ Sonder’s voice.
‘He said not to do anything.’ It was Luna’s voice; to most people she would have sounded calm, but I could hear the trace of anxiety. ‘We could- Alex!’
I turned around — really turned around, this time. Luna gave me a searching look, then let out a sigh of relief. ‘You’re okay.’
‘I’m okay,’ I said. ‘Sonder? Take a look at the right corner. While you’re doing that, I’ve got something to tell you both.’
As Sonder worked, I relayed what I’d learned. I briefly considered keeping it a secret between me and Luna, but there wasn’t any good excuse to send Sonder out of earshot and anyway, I wanted his input. ‘That’s incredible,’ Sonder said once I’d finished. ‘I mean, just the idea of surviving that long … The Dark Wars were almost two thousand years ago! The things he’d be able to tell us!’
‘Sonder,’ I said. ‘Priorities. Survive first, research afterwards. Does what he said match with what you know?’
Sonder thought for a minute. ‘We’ve never been able to recover a fateweaver before. It was just assumed they were all destroyed, but if they were unstable, that would explain it. And there’s always been a mystery about Abithriax’s death. Some writers did argue for the betrayal theory, but there’s never been any proof. The Old Council fell into infighting after the Dark Wars and most of the records were destroyed.’
‘Do you trust him?’ Luna asked.
I hesitated. ‘I’m not sure,’ I said at last. ‘I had the feeling he was keeping something back. But I’m pretty sure he was telling the truth about what he’d do if Onyx found him first.’
‘So what should we do?’ Luna said.
Sonder had stopped and both he and Luna were looking at me, waiting for my decision. ‘We go for the fateweaver,’ I said. ‘If we can take it for ourselves, we’ve got a chance. But I don’t want either of you involved in the fighting. Onyx and the rest are going to be after me, not you. Don’t do anything to draw their attention.’
I made my voice sound confident and both of them nodded, Sonder quickly, Luna a little more reluctantly. The two of them turned back to what they were doing and I bit my lip, wishing I was as sure as I was pretending to be.
The truth was that none of our options were good. I knew that trying to beat Onyx and the others to the fateweaver was likely to end in a fight, and I also knew that if it came to a battle our little group was almost certain to lose. It was tempting to run and hide. If we weren’t going for the fateweaver, Levistus and Morden’s agents would be too busy fighting each other to worry about us.
Except that if we did that, whoever won the battle would be free to hunt us down afterwards, with all the power of the Precursor artifact at their disposal. Whether we lived or died would be up to them. My instinct told me our best chance was to act. But it’s one thing to risk your own life and another to risk someone else’s. I looked at Luna withdrawn into the corner, and Sonder examining the wall, and felt suddenly afraid. For all my brave words, I didn’t know if I’d be able to protect either of them.
Then I shook it off and focused, going back to watching Sonder and sifting through the futures. After a moment I knew Abithriax’s advice had been good. ‘There,’ I told Sonder. ‘Try some command words.’
‘Uh … which ones?’
‘Every one you can think of.’
Sonder looked back at the wall and hesitated. ‘This feels silly.’
I sighed inwardly. For all Sonder’s knowledge, it was painfully obvious how inexperienced he was. Once you’ve been around the block a few times you stop caring about looking silly, especially when you’re dealing with magical traps. Better to be laughed at than dead, and he wouldn’t have been laughed at. ‘Just give it a go.’
Sonder started reciting in the old tongue. He spoke like a scholar, each word carefully pronounced. ‘Stop,’ I said after a moment. ‘Say that last one again and put your hand on the wall, fingers spread. Up a bit,’ I said as Sonder obeyed. ‘Left a bit. Hold that. Now say that word again.’
Reluctantly, Sonder did as I said. ‘Etro.’
Right in front of Sonder, a section of wall seven feet high and three feet wide glowed for an instant and simply vanished. Sonder started and jumped back. Beyond was a short corridor, bending left. ‘Now I see,’ I said. ‘The whole room is a trap. The only safe way is to go around.’
‘Is it safe?’ Luna asked.
‘Yes. It’s-’ I stopped.
‘What’s wrong?’
I stared for a moment before answering. ‘It’s not empty.’
The corridor was about five feet wide. All the way along the left side was a one-way mirror into the trap room, and as we looked in we got a perfect view of what would have happened to us if we’d stepped through that door.
Every inch of the other room — walls, floor, ceiling — was covered in mirrors. Instead of being placed evenly, they were tilted, casting images at odd angles. Reflecting from the mirrors, filling the room with a criss-cross of white light, were beams of energy, white lines that looked harmless but which I knew could cut like razors. The room was so filled with the beams that it took a moment to realise that there were in fact only three. They emerged from a single tiny panel on the back wall, then bounced around the room at every angle, multiplied a thousand times over.
In the middle of the room, trapped in a cage of beams, were Rachel and Cinder. Rachel was in a half-crouch, a beam just above her head stopping her from rising any further. Cinder was standing, leaning sideways to fit into the empty space. Beams laced the air around them, and I could see burnt patches on their clothes where they’d brushed up against the energy. Both were standing dead still.
Luna stopped as she saw them. ‘Alex-’
‘They can’t see us,’ I said. Neither Rachel nor Cinder reacted as we spoke. ‘Or hear. Sonder, do you know what that is?’
‘It’s an energy lattice,’ Sonder said. He was staring in fascination. ‘I’ve never seen one before.’
‘What does it do?’
Sonder started. ‘Um, they were defence systems from the Dark Wars. They were meant to contain intruders. Once the beams are up, you have to stand there until someone comes to turn it off.’
‘What happens if no one comes?’
Sonder paused. ‘I don’t really know.’
On the other side of the glass, Cinder said something and Rachel answered silently. Both were only inches away from beams on all sides. Sooner or later they would get tired and fall, and when they did, the beams would kill them.
It’s a strange feeling, holding someone’s life in your hands, and it affects people in different ways. Some hate it; they can’t stand the burden and get away as quick as they can. Others revel in the power. You can think of it as a choice, and it is, but the truth is that for most of the big things, the choice was made long ago. It’s only when you reach the crossroads that you discover what it was. It was nothing new to me; I’d been here before. But the others …
Both Luna and Sonder stared through the one-way mirror. Neither spoke, but it was so easy to read their thoughts. Rachel and Cinder were their enemies; all they had to do was walk away. But when it came to it, they hesitated. One after another they turned to look at me, and I knew they were waiting for me to make the decision, just as I’d done a few minutes ago. I could order them to help Rachel and Cinder or to walk away and leave, and they’d obey.
‘What do you think we should do?’ I asked them
I saw their faces change. The seconds ticked away and, even here, I couldn’t help but be curious. I looked into the future, trying to see how they’d decide, and couldn’t predict either. You can’t see beyond a choice that someone hasn’t made. I watched as the possibilities wavered, shifting and changing.