Luna leaned in close. ‘Get up.’
My eyes snapped open. Light stabbed into them and I squinted, twisting my head. I was lying on my side in the interview room; one of my arms was numb from where my head had been lying on it. Aside from me, the room was empty.
Through the closed door, I could hear a rising and falling siren. A female voice was speaking calmly over a public address system. ‘Facility lockdown. All staff report to the nearest guard station. Facility lockdown. All staff report to the nearest guard station.’
I pulled myself to my feet, staggered and grabbed at the table to stop myself from going over. My head ached and my limbs felt heavy and sluggish. Anne. Where did she go? I reached for the door handle, got it on the second try, and pulled it open.
The siren was still going. It sounded like it dated from World War II, and it was loud as hell. I heard a scrabbling sound and turned to look.
The corridor met another one to form a crossroads just a little way down, and a guard had just backed out into my view. He had a radio in one hand and had been shouting something into it, but as I watched he dropped it with a clatter and scrabbled for his gun. He levelled it and got off two shots before something came around the corner and opened him up in a spray of blood.
It all happened almost too fast to follow. The guard was screaming, wrestling with something that seemed to be all shadows and sharp edges, then he was on the ground and there were two of the things on him, claws ripping and tearing, blood spattering on the floor. The screams died away in a wet throaty sound and his hands clutched and went still. The things kept mauling his body, then their heads snapped up to stare at me.
I froze. I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at. They looked vaguely humanoid, thin and spindly, but their bodies and limbs seemed to be made of solid shadows that twisted in the light. They looked almost translucent, but there was blood clinging to their claws, and eyeless faces stared into mine. I reached instinctively for a weapon, found nothing. The security screening. Shit. I looked into the future, searching for their attack path, ready to dodge.
Then the nearer one sniffed at the air, and futures in which it attacked flickered and vanished. It hissed, and one after another the two of them turned and slipped away down the corridor, leaving a bloody trail behind them. In an instant I was alone but for the guard’s torn body.
I shook my head. Too much was happening. What the hell were those things?
I moved to the guard’s body, and one look was enough to confirm that he wasn’t getting up. I took his gun, saw a ring of keys on his belt, took those too. The siren was still going, the recorded voice was still playing, and now that I listened, I could hear shouts and screams echoing down the corridors. I wished uselessly for my armour. I’d come today expecting politics, not something out of a horror movie.
I didn’t know what was going on, but something told me that whatever it was, it was going to involve Morden. I remembered the route to his cell from my last visit and took off at a jog. I could hear sounds of combat from all around, but my divination showed me a path clear of danger. I found another dead guard two corridors down, and a blood trail indicated where someone had been attacked but managed to get away. The shadow creatures, whatever they were, were still prowling the corridors.
I came to a security gate. One of the keys from the guard’s ring fit the lock and I opened it, letting it clang shut behind me. I could hear the sound of combat from up ahead, and it was getting louder. I hurried around the corner and stopped, looking at the scene ahead.
I’d reached the guard post just ahead of Morden’s cell. The last time I’d been here it had been staffed by mantis golems, but now the golems were lying sprawled on the floor, their eyes lifeless and dull. Two guards were lying there as well, though unlike the bodies I’d seen in the corridors, they bore no marks.
There were three people still upright – Barrayar, Solace and Caldera – and they were engaged in combat against more of those shadow things. Caldera was at the front, fighting hand-to-hand, while Barrayar was watching her back. Solace was behind them both, hiding in the corner. The shadows threw themselves at Caldera, claws ripping and tearing, but their strikes slid off her skin as though it were stone. Caldera fought slowly and deliberately, taking her time to line up each punch. The shadows might look insubstantial, but they were obviously solid enough to be hurt: each of Caldera’s blows sent them staggering. Barrayar was holding back, a barely visible blade of force held low and out of sight. One of the shadows tried to attack Caldera from behind, and Barrayar killed it almost too fast to see, his blade gutting it from stomach to throat.
I’d arrived at the tail end of the fight. There were only three of the shadow things left, and as I watched, the number became two, then one. The last of the creatures lunged at Caldera, hissing, and she smashed her fist right through its head. The decapitated body hit the floor, twitching, and Caldera whirled on me.
‘Whoa!’ I held up my hands. Caldera’s blood was up and I didn’t want her seeing me as a threat. ‘Easy!’
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Caldera snapped.
‘What do you think? What the hell are those things?’
‘How the fuck should I know?’
There were half a dozen of the shadow creatures lying on the floor, but as I looked, I saw that they were dissolving. Pieces of their bodies were flaking away, disappearing into the air. As I looked more closely, I saw that there were eight or nine bodies, not half a dozen; the ones I’d missed were already mostly gone. Soon there’d be nothing at all.
‘Summoned creatures,’ Barrayar said. He was kneeling over one of the ones he’d killed. ‘They’re discorporating now that the effect is broken.’ He looked at me. ‘Did you and Morden plan this?’
‘No!’ I said vehemently. ‘I have no idea what’s going on. I thought Morden was with you!’
Barrayar looked aside. ‘Solace?’
‘He wasn’t here,’ Solace said reluctantly. ‘He came from the interview room.’
They haven’t figured it out. I said a silent prayer of thanks. It’s the way that Light mages think – in Barrayar’s and Solace’s minds, it was only Council members that were the players. It hadn’t occurred to them to suspect Anne. Caldera, though …
But Caldera had other things on her mind. ‘Is Morden still here?’ she demanded of Solace.
Solace was looking down the corridor towards the airlock leading to Morden’s cell. ‘Yes,’ she said uneasily. ‘But there’s something in there with him. Another – or two – I don’t like this.’
‘You said it was Vihaela?’ Solace asked Barrayar.
‘I only had a brief look before the door closed,’ Barrayar said. ‘But it looked very much like the reports from the Tiger’s Palace.’
‘Wonderful,’ Caldera muttered. ‘What do you think those creatures are? Some side perk of whatever item she’s using?’
‘I would imagine so.’
‘They’re coming,’ Solace said suddenly. ‘Two mages – no, three – no, two …’
‘Would you make up your mind please?’ Barrayar said.
‘We should fall back,’ Solace said. She took a few steps away, placing Barrayar and Caldera between her and the airlock doors. ‘Report to the Council.’
‘Communications are out,’ Barrayar said curtly. ‘By the time we made it outside, they’d be on our heels.’
‘Then we should call for backup …’
Caldera gave Solace a look of contempt. ‘Will you shut the fuck up?’
Solace drew herself up. ‘You can’t talk to me like—’