If you’re going to have a problem with someone, it’s best to settle it early. I’d already given Ji-yeong the chance to fight. Now I was giving her the chance to run. She was fifty feet away and out of sight; if she wanted to flee, she’d never have a better opportunity. Again I saw the futures waver, but this time she made her decision quickly.
Two minutes later footsteps sounded and Ji-yeong’s head appeared in the open stairwell. She looked around the towertop, saw me, and walked across. The sword was still sheathed at her hip. ‘You could have given me a lift,’ she told me, raising her voice above the wind.
I wasn’t actually sure if I could. The copper headband I’d been using to make these jumps was an imbued item that employed air magic; I’d taken it from Levistus’s shadow realm only two days ago, and while it was willing to carry me, passengers were another story. ‘Something wrong with your legs?’ I asked Ji-yeong.
Ji-yeong looked unimpressed.
I turned to the parapet. ‘Let’s get to work.’
The battle had moved on while we’d been busy. The areas closer to us had emptied; all the fighting was far away now, around the central keep. Jann and shadows clashed in waves, looking like black dots, a steady stream of reinforcements flying in from the tombs. I pointed toward the tombs. ‘Who’s fighting who?’
‘You mean who started?’ Ji-yeong asked. ‘Or who’s left?’
‘Start at the beginning.’
Ji-yeong made a face. ‘This is humiliating.’
‘Let me guess. First you got beaten by Anne, now you had to get rescued?’
‘And now you want me to tell you the story.’
‘You’re alive,’ I said. ‘Which means you’re doing a lot better than most people who’ve gone up against Anne lately. Now start at the beginning.’
‘Fine. A couple of hours ago the breach alarm went off. When we got to the gatehouse, there were three people waiting on the other end of the bridge. The one in the middle was that Anne Walker girl.’
‘Other two?’
‘Western woman, Western guy. Oldish, forty or something? The woman was a fat earth mage, the man was a force mage in a nice suit. We went out to meet them.’
Caldera and Barrayar. ‘Who’s “we”?’
‘Me, Aether and Jethro.’
‘Who?’
‘Aether’s Sam. He took that name after Sagash made him Chosen. Jethro’s the new kid.’
‘What happened to Darren?’ I asked. He’d been the third of Sagash’s apprentices.
‘Killed in a raid two years back. Anyway, the Walker girl did all the talking. The other two just stood there like statues. She threatened me and Sam a bit, but she was really here for Sagash. She called him out.’
‘Did he come?’ I asked with interest.
‘Kind of,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘Talked via projection. We backed off so I didn’t hear what they were saying, but when it was done Sagash didn’t sound happy.’ Ji-yeong paused. ‘Well, he never does these days. He shifted his projection to in front of us, told us to defend the castle and vanished.’
‘He didn’t come to join you?’
Ji-yeong shook her head. ‘Been months since he left the keep. And he’s been getting more unpredictable. I was actually starting to think about . . . well. Guess it doesn’t matter now.’
I waited. After a moment Ji-yeong carried on. ‘So we decided it was worth a shot. I mean, three on three’s not so bad, right? And we’d have the shadows backing us up.’ Ji-yeong was silent for a moment. ‘Yeah. That did not go to plan. First she calls up an army of summoned monsters in ten seconds flat. I mean, that’s not even supposed to be possible. Sagash spent ten years building up those shadows and there’s a whole ritual arrangement in the tombs. You need set-up. She just did it –’ Ji-yeong snapped her fingers. ‘– like that. And then there was her. I mean, the Walker girl’s a life mage, sure, but Sam and I dealt with her last time, we knew what she could do. Or we thought we did.’ Ji-yeong shook her head. ‘It was nothing like last time. She’s got some new kind of magic. Sam and I went at her from both sides and she held us both off and I don’t think she was even trying. It was like fighting Sagash.’
‘What happened?’
‘Jethro’s dead,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘He tried to run and the guy in the suit got him in the back. I saw him go off one of the walkways. Aether – Sam – last I saw, he was facing Anne Walker. I stopped sensing his magic a minute later. For all I know he’s dead as well.’
‘Does that bother you?’ I asked.
‘Why?’
‘Just curious.’
‘You don’t expect other apprentices to be your friends.’
‘But?’
‘But what?’ Ji-yeong shot me a challenging look. ‘You want to see if I’m going soft?’
‘Anybody else in the castle?’
‘Just the shadows.’
I nodded and stepped away. ‘All right. We’re done here.’
Ji-yeong frowned. ‘I thought you wanted information.’
‘I’ve got all I need.’
Ji-yeong pointed at the keep in the distance. Black flashes of battle magic lit up its walls; even from this distance I could sense the power in the spells. ‘You don’t want to see who wins?’
‘I already know.’
‘I’ve never seen Sagash lose a fight.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘This is the problem with setting yourself up as ruler of your little pocket kingdom. You get isolated. If Sagash had stayed in touch, he might have got wind of what was coming. He wouldn’t have won, but he could have set up a bolt-hole.’ I pointed in the direction of the battle. ‘Those two other mages, Caldera and Barrayar, they’re possessed by ifrit jinn. Anne is possessed by a marid. There’s only one way this is going to end.’
I started walking toward the stairs. Ji-yeong fell into step just behind me. ‘So what’s going to happen?’
‘Anne is going to smash through Sagash’s defences and take him down,’ I said. ‘Once that’s over, she’s going to do a sweep of her new shadow realm.’
The inside of the tower was cool and dusty, beams of light passing through arched windows to splash across the spiral staircase. ‘What happened with you two anyway?’ Ji-yeong asked. ‘Last time you were . . .’
‘We were what?’
I hadn’t raised my voice, but there must have been something in my tone because Ji-yeong didn’t finish her sentence. We descended a flight of stairs in silence.
‘How much do you know about Anne’s history with Sagash?’ I asked.
‘He doesn’t talk about it.’
‘Sagash kidnapped Anne and brought her here nine years ago. She was eighteen at the time. He wanted an apprentice-assassin and when Anne didn’t turn out murderous enough for his liking he decided to change her by force. It had some lasting effects. When Richard Drakh showed up looking for a host for that marid, he decided she was the perfect candidate.’
‘Drakh?’
‘Recognise the name?’
‘Well, yeah,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘He made kind of an impression. He met with Sagash after you escaped.’
‘What did he want?’
‘I don’t know, but whatever it was, Sagash turned him down.’
I nodded. That decision had probably sealed Sagash’s fate.
We came out of the tower at ground level. Grass grew in between weather-worn structures of pale stone. ‘Wait,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘So all of this has been about this Anne girl? First Sagash wanted her, then Crystal wanted her. And now you’re saying Drakh’s been chasing her too?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘I don’t get it,’ Ji-yeong said. ‘All these master mages, fighting over one life apprentice who doesn’t even want to join them?’