Kyle frowned. ‘Maybe I’m a bit out of date, but doesn’t Onyx hate you? Like, really hate you? To the point where he was trying to kill you in the Vault just because you stayed in range?’
‘Yes, he does, and yes, he did,’ I said shortly. The Council was really going to owe me for this. ‘Could you put me in touch? I really don’t want to just walk up to Morden’s mansion and knock on the front door.’
Kyle looked at Cinder. ‘I guess we could try …’
‘Sure you want to?’ Cinder said.
‘Don’t really have a choice.’ It was tempting to just stay the hell away, but that wouldn’t really accomplish anything except running out the clock. ‘I know you aren’t exactly on speaking terms, but what’s the guy’s mental state like at the moment? I mean, aside from the “being a psychopathic killer” part.’
‘Aside from that, right.’ Kyle snorted. ‘What, you’re wondering whether he’s sane enough to talk to?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘Hasn’t gone crazy yet,’ Cinder said.
‘He’s a psycho, but he’s a rational psycho,’ Kyle said. ‘If you can give him a good reason not to attack you, he won’t. It’s just that there has to be a reason, because this guy’s spent a long time using excessive amounts of violence on anything that annoys him or gets in his way, and it usually works. So if he thinks it’ll work on you …’ Kyle shrugged. ‘You get the idea.’
‘So how do you deal with him?’ I said. ‘That space magic trick of yours is handy, but I don’t think it’d slow down someone like Onyx.’
‘It wouldn’t, and that’s why I stay the hell out of his way,’ Kyle said. ‘Especially after …’
‘After?’
Kyle shut up, and I looked at him curiously. ‘Especially after what?’
‘You going to tell him?’ Cinder said. There wasn’t any expression on his face, but all of a sudden, I had the odd feeling that he was amused.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Kyle snapped.
‘I could tell him.’
‘You don’t need to tell him!’
‘Okay,’ I said, looking between the two. ‘I think I’m missing something here.’
Kyle shot Cinder a dirty look and turned back to me reluctantly. ‘So, Onyx might have a kill-on-sight order out on me if I go back to his mansion.’
‘Because you hang out with Cinder?’
‘Besides that.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘Besides that?’
‘Yes,’ Kyle said. ‘Can we drop it?’
‘No, no, this I have to hear. What did you do, steal his silverware?’
‘Something like that.’
I cocked my head. ‘Except that if you’d stolen something he wouldn’t be waiting for you to show up, he’d be hunting you down to get it back. Sounds more like you tried to steal his silverware.’
Kyle glowered. ‘I was trying to get someone out of the mansion and it didn’t work. Drop it, okay?’
‘Someone’, huh? Just out of curiosity, I sorted through the futures in which I mentioned all the names of people I knew who might have been connected to Onyx. To my surprise, I got a hit after less than a dozen tries. ‘Selene? Really?’
‘Told you he’d guess it,’ Cinder said.
‘Jesus.’ Kyle rolled his eyes. ‘This? This is why people hate diviners.’
‘So you were trying to do a rescue,’ I said, and looked at Cinder. ‘Didn’t realise he was the hero sort.’
‘Still playing white knight,’ Cinder said.
‘Oh, screw you both,’ Kyle said.
‘Sure you don’t want to tell me the story?’ I asked.
‘No,’ Kyle said shortly.
I looked at Kyle thoughtfully. Selene had been one of the slaves at Morden’s mansion that I’d met back when I’d been an involuntary guest there. I’d hardly spoken to her and I didn’t remember much except an impression of dark hair and wary eyes. I hadn’t even known she was still alive – being a slave to a Dark mage is a hazardous job. Apparently Kyle had decided to stage a rescue and it hadn’t worked out.
The parallels were a little too close for comfort. Back when I’d been dealing with the adept leading Kyle’s group, Will, I’d been aware of the similarities between him and me. Now it was looking like he hadn’t been the only one. I hoped Kyle’s path wouldn’t land him in the same place mine had.
I was also glad Kyle hadn’t asked me for help, and vaguely ashamed that I was glad. I really didn’t need any more problems right now. ‘So,’ I said, turning back to Cinder. ‘How long will it take for a connect?’
‘Few days,’ Cinder said. ‘Week at most.’
And if Onyx said no, I’d have to figure out a way to get the guy to listen to me without getting killed on sight. Well, one problem at a time. ‘Anything else?’
Cinder shook his head. ‘He gets in touch, he’s interested. He doesn’t …’ He shrugged. ‘Good luck.’
7
As things turned out, I didn’t have to wait long – Cinder got back to me within forty-eight hours. The message he relayed from Onyx was short, specifying only a time and a place. Once he’d said his piece, Cinder broke contact. He’d done his part; now I was on my own.
I reported back to Talisid, who passed my information on to Bahamus. They were happy enough to authorise the meeting. They were not happy about the level of authority I wanted.
‘I’m sorry, Verus,’ Talisid said, ‘but we really can’t authorise anything like that.’ We were talking through an audio-only link, so I couldn’t see Talisid’s face, but I could imagine his expression.
‘You can, and you’d better,’ I said shortly.
‘We’ll need to see any provisional agreement before we can authorise it.’
‘How are you expecting this to work?’ I said. ‘You think I’m going to go meet Onyx, he tells me his requests, I tell him yours, then I go back to you and you suggest changes to the deal, then I go back and meet him again, and we repeat that cycle three or four times until we’ve got an agreement everyone is happy with? Is that your plan?’
‘Is there something wrong with that?’
‘Is there—? Are you serious?’
‘What exactly is the problem?’ Talisid asked. He had an annoyingly patient tone of voice that I’d become familiar with.
I took a breath. Losing my temper wasn’t going to accomplish anything, no matter how frustrating the Council can be. To be fair, Talisid’s idea was reasonable … if you were dealing with a Light mage. Anne would have understood without me having to explain. ‘The number one rule when you’re dealing with Dark mages is that you have to negotiate from a position of strength,’ I said. ‘The worst thing you can do is make them think you’re weak. If I don’t have the authority to settle terms, then in their eyes, that automatically makes me weak. And by implication, that makes you weak.’
‘I don’t follow.’
‘A Dark mage who’s serious about negotiating a deal goes there in person. If he does send a proxy, he’ll send one with the authority to close. If he doesn’t, other Dark mages are going to see that as timid at best and a deliberate waste of their time at worst. If they decide to express their displeasure about that, guess who’s the most obvious target for them to vent their feelings on?’
‘Perhaps if you present it more diplomatically …’
‘Onyx is a thug,’ I said flatly. ‘He’s powerful, brutal and short-tempered. When you’re dealing with people like that, you present your offer and you do it fast.’