‘Well, they paid for it in any case. One of the shooters got away, but we took care of the other two. The rest of the casualties were all inflicted while you were pursuing Richard and Vihaela.’
‘Any prisoners?’
‘Several.’
‘Richard’s cabal?’
Landis shook his head. ‘No such luck, I’m afraid. They’ll be interrogated, but none seem particularly knowledgeable. I suspect we’ll find that all were hired muscle.’
‘And meanwhile,’ I said sourly, ‘Richard and Vihaela, along with all their important supporters, have vanished into thin air.’
‘It does appear that way.’
‘The eight from the crowd,’ I said. ‘What happened to them?’
‘Trampled or shot.’
‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that none of them were killed by our own side?’
‘I rather expect so,’ Landis said. ‘I wouldn’t be too hard on the security men. They were being fired upon, and some of those adepts were using quite dangerous attacks.’
‘That’s not how the adepts are going to see it,’ I said, then raised a hand to forestall Landis’s reply. ‘I know, I know. It’s not their fault.’
My earpiece pinged. ‘Boss, Alex,’ Variam said. ‘You there?’
‘Just finishing up,’ Landis said. ‘How goes things up above?’
‘Well, this thing’s definitely a gate focus,’ Variam said. ‘But it’s locked down tight. I don’t know if they sabotaged it, but I can’t get it working and it doesn’t look like anyone else can either. Could use Alex if he’s around.’
‘I’ll take a look,’ I said. ‘We one hundred per cent sure that Richard and his gang used that to get out?’
‘Abeyance says so,’ Variam said. ‘Not like there were many other options.’
‘Yeah,’ I said. The item Variam was studying – a free-standing arch in one of the first-floor rooms – was what we’d found when we’d pursued Richard and Vihaela to their last known location. The interdiction field the Keepers had thrown over the Tiger’s Palace had prevented gate spells, but if you’re willing to spend enough time and effort it’s possible to shield a gate focus against outside interference, rather like laying down a landline to prevent your signal from being jammed. ‘And you know what that means.’
‘Means they not only knew we were coming, they had enough warning to set up stuff like this,’ Variam said. ‘Council’s not going to be happy.’
‘The Council had enough bloody warnings,’ I said shortly.
‘Bet you they still blame it on us.’
‘No bet. Hang around, I’ll be up there in five.’
‘Got it.’
Near the door, I could see Nimbus sitting up with one of the healer corps tending to him. He was looking bad-tempered but didn’t shoo the mage away, possibly because he wasn’t yet able to stand. ‘You think I ought to talk to him?’ I asked Landis, nodding in Nimbus’s direction.
‘I rather suspect it’d be a bad idea,’ Landis said. ‘Our dear friend Nimbus is not the most humble of mages, and I doubt it’ll sit well if you remind him of how he was taken out of the fight in one move. If you’re not interested in making enemies, I’d suggest a discreet withdrawal.’
‘Wonderful,’ I said with a sigh. ‘Then I think I’ll check in with Variam and get the hell out of here.’
‘Oh, Verus?’
I paused, looking back.
‘Good work back there.’
‘Mm,’ I said. ‘There are seventeen bodies that say I could have done a lot better.’
‘It really could have been so much worse,’ Landis said. He patted me on the shoulder. ‘For your first field command, I’d say you did extremely well.’
‘That’s … good to hear.’ Landis might be eccentric, but he’s perceptive. If he gives you a compliment, he means it. ‘So you think this wasn’t a failure?’
‘Tonight was the first skirmish in what I suspect will be quite a long war,’ Landis said. ‘I’d get some rest if I were you. I’m sure you’ll have a busy day explaining all this to the Senior Council tomorrow.’
13
‘What I want to know,’ Sal Sarque said, ‘is how the fuck this was allowed to happen.’
‘We have just spent an hour and a half on a detailed review of precisely that,’ Bahamus said.
Sal Sarque jabbed a finger at Bahamus. ‘Don’t play games. I didn’t say how this happened, I said how this was allowed to happen. This was your plan.’
‘One that you voted for.’
There were thirteen people besides me in the Star Chamber: the secretary, plus the seven senior and remaining five junior members of the Light Council. Everyone had shown up this time. The Junior Council, including me, were gathered at the lower half of the table, or as I thought of it, the kiddy table. For obvious reasons, I didn’t say that (or anything else) out loud. The Senior Council were in an extremely bad mood and no one wanted to draw attention.
The meeting had started as a debrief of last night’s events and had quickly devolved into Sal Sarque blaming Bahamus and Bahamus defending himself. No one had tried to blame me just yet, but I knew that was just a matter of time. Bahamus was getting priority because he was more important and because he’d been the one to first propose the plan. I was next.
‘Let’s all calm down, shall we?’ Druss said. ‘End of the day, we lost three security and no mages. Could have been a lot higher.’
‘I’m sorry, Druss, but the numbers are irrelevant,’ Alma said. ‘We could have lost every security man we sent and it would have been an acceptable trade. Our objective was Drakh, and now not only has he escaped, everyone knows he’s escaped. He’s made the Council into a laughing stock.’
‘Better to have them laughing than our people dead,’ Druss said.
‘No,’ Alma said. ‘Drakh has just demonstrated that it is possible to flout Council law without consequence. If we don’t make an example of him, and soon, we’ll lose far more than that.’
‘Oh?’ Sal Sarque said, turning on Alma. ‘And how exactly are you going to do that? You couldn’t even find him before!’
‘While that is an important question,’ Levistus cut in, ‘before we move on to the question of what steps to take, I think there are still some unanswered questions about last night. In particular, I’d be interested in hearing Verus’s explanation for his presence.’
Seven pairs of eyes fixed on me as the whole Senior Council turned to face me at once. ‘I wanted to keep an eye on things,’ I said.
‘You weren’t authorised to be there!’ Sal Sarque snapped. ‘You were specifically ordered to stay away!’
‘You mean that second-hand message I got passed? Yes, I was, and I was also told to be close enough that I’d be available to reach the site on short notice. I don’t know how you were expecting me to do both.’
Sal Sarque looked about to explode, but before he could speak, Druss raised a hand. ‘I think we’re getting off topic. Why were you there?’
‘You might remember at our last meeting that Spire asked me whether I thought the operation would work.’ I nodded at Spire, who was watching quietly with his fingers steepled. ‘I told him that I thought the odds were against it, because there was too great a chance of the plans being leaked. I think events have borne me out on that front.’
‘A leak?’ Sal Sarque was turning a purplish colour. ‘You were the leak! How else did they know?’
‘How about from one of the literally hundreds of people that you and your staff decided to inform? Between your personal staff and the aides and clerks of everyone else on the Senior Council, the Keeper team, the security contingent supporting the Keeper team and every other bureaucrat and administrator that’s been involved in this operation by now, it’d have been a bloody miracle if Drakh didn’t find out.’