‘And how exactly—?’ Barrayar began, right before I launched myself into the middle of the shadows.
I’d had a lot of time to look at the futures of what would happen if I came into close quarters with these things, and one thing I’d noticed was that I wasn’t going to die straightaway. Plenty of futures in which I got slashed or cut up, but none where I got my guts torn out the way that guard had. Given how many other people they’d killed so far, that had made me wonder why.
And the best answer I’d come up with was that they weren’t trying to kill me at all. Anne had had more than enough chances to finish me off if she’d wanted to. She could have done it at the Tiger’s Palace, and again while I was in the interview room. But she’d left me alive, and now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure she’d told her summoned pets to do the same. Those two creatures that I’d run into earlier had backed off once they’d figured out who I was. Either that other Anne didn’t want me dead, the real Anne still had some influence over her actions or Morden and company had plans that involved me being alive. I didn’t know which it was, but I was going to take advantage.
I went through the shadow creatures in a rush, only fighting when I had to and leaving my sides and back unguarded. One got in my way and I shot it through the face, but the others fell back, hissing. The back of my neck was tense and all my instincts screamed against leaving myself open like this, but it was over in seconds and space opened up before me. I sprinted around the corner and slammed the security gate closed behind me with a clang of metal. A flurry of shadows and claws hit the gate about two-tenths of a second later, but they were too late. I was through.
I backed off, watching the shadow things hiss and tear at the metal. I could sense force magic from behind and I knew that Barrayar was fighting. I had mixed feelings about him, Solace and Caldera being left in their current position, but since I had no further ability to affect the battle one way or the other, my feelings didn’t matter very much. Perhaps I’d drawn off enough of the things to give them a chance. For now, I had bigger problems.
I sprinted down the corridors of San Vittore, chasing Morden and Anne. The prison was silent; the alarm had shut off and I couldn’t hear any movement from down the halls. I made it back to the entrance room to find it deserted, the scanner offline. The gateway focus was inactive, but from the residue I could tell it had been used recently. I activated it and stepped through, back into our world, and found myself facing the business end of ten sub-machine-guns.
There was a Keeper leading the squad, one I vaguely knew – his name began with a D. ‘Who else has come through here?’ I demanded.
‘Why are you—?’ the Keeper began.
‘I don’t have time for this.’ I stalked forward, ignoring the weapons pointing in my direction; they wavered as the Council security men holding them started to have second thoughts. ‘Morden has escaped. Did he come through here? Yes or no?’
‘How did—? No. What’s going on?’
‘Shit,’ I muttered. The bubble realm was supposed to be gate-locked so that the only way to leave it was via this point. Apparently Morden and Anne had found a way around that too. I pointed back the way I’d come. ‘The prison’s getting attacked by some kind of summoned monsters. They’re not a match for a Keeper, but a good fraction of the guards are dead and the survivors need help. Take your men in there.’
The Keeper held his ground. ‘Orders are to secure the entry point.’
I stepped closer and leaned in towards the Keeper, eyes narrowed. ‘Men are dying in there. Very soon now, calls are going to go out summoning the Council for an emergency meeting to figure out what to do about this clusterfuck. When that happens, people are going to start looking for someone to blame, and a Keeper who ignored direct Council orders and sat on his arse when he could have helped will make an extremely good scapegoat.’ I switched my glare to the squad behind the Keeper. ‘That goes for the rest of you as well. Move.’
Anger flashed across the Keeper’s face, then he took a breath and looked aside towards his men. ‘We’re moving out. Get the others in here.’
I walked past and out. I got sidelong looks but no one tried to stop me. Plans were running through my head. Where would Morden have gone? His mansion … no, too obvious. It was the first place the Council were going to check, and besides, Onyx was there. If I were in his place, I’d go to some sort of staging point, somewhere in another country, to make pursuit harder. I knew I wouldn’t be able to guess all the places Morden could have gone, but Anne was another story. I might be able to intercept her, catch up …
… and what? Even if I could catch Anne, what could I do? I’d seen how easily Anne had handled Caldera. What was I going to do differently?
But even as I asked that question, I knew the answer. I couldn’t match Anne in a fight, but there was a way for me to face her on even footing. I changed direction and started walking, pulling out my phone and hitting the signal to alert Luna and Variam. I knew there wasn’t much time.
15
Luna and Variam got my message and called one after the other. I told them to meet me in the Hollow and that I’d explain everything there. My Council communicator and my work phone were starting to light up with calls from Light mages. I ignored them all – I’d figure out about what lies I needed to tell them later, assuming there was a later.
Luna and Variam arrived in the Hollow less than two minutes after I did. ‘What’s going on?’ Variam said as he let the gate close behind him. ‘The whole Keeper net was just starting to light up when I—’
‘Anne’s been possessed,’ I said. ‘The jinn’s back and it’s not going away.’ I told them the story quickly and succinctly, leaving nothing out. Luna’s mouth was open by the time I finished.
‘Wait, that was her?’ Luna said. ‘In the Tiger’s Palace?’
‘Yes, and if we can’t get to her, she’s going to stay like that.’
Variam looked a lot less surprised than Luna. His expression was grim. ‘What can we do?’
‘I need the two of you to get to Anne’s new flat,’ I said. ‘You can take my stone to get through the wards if you don’t have your own. Find that tracer focus and use it. She’s been pretty good about keeping it supplied with fresh blood.’
‘What if she’s got there first?’ Variam asked.
‘She hasn’t,’ I said. ‘I’ve checked. She’ll get around to it eventually, but right now she’s going to be busy and this other Anne isn’t really the conscientious type. You should have at least an hour.’
‘But when we catch up with her, then what?’ Luna asked. ‘If she decides she’s not coming quietly … well, the way you’re describing it, I’m not sure we’d win that argument.’
‘We wouldn’t,’ I said. ‘And it won’t be all three of us.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you’re not going to be fighting Anne,’ I said. ‘I am. You’re right: there’s no way we can beat her in a fight, not physically. But I’m not going to be there physically. I’m going to enter Elsewhere, go into her mind, kick that jinn out and wake the real Anne back up again.’
Luna and Variam stared at me. ‘Can you do that?’ Luna asked.
‘Only chance we’ve got,’ I said. ‘I’ll stay in touch with you two through the dreamstone. I need you both to get a fix on Anne and be ready. As soon as I give the word, use the tracer to gate to her location, grab her and get her back here.’