‘Yes, and also this morning.’ I finished my orange juice, grabbed the last three hash browns and rose. ‘Let’s take a walk.’
Once we were outside and away from eavesdroppers, I filled Luna in on my conversations with November and Anne. ‘Well, crap,’ Luna said once I was done.
‘Sums it up.’
‘I guess now we know why no one uses isolation wards.’ Luna walked for a few seconds more before shaking her head. We were out in the morning sunlight, making a circuit on the grass around the millpond, the sails of the windmill creaking overhead. ‘Well, I suppose if there’s nothing we can do about it, there’s no point worrying. Do your Elsewhere gates work?’
‘They’re blocked too,’ I said. ‘Might be able to find a way around it with enough time, but that’s not something we have a lot of. Which brings us to Anne.’
Luna nodded. ‘So is it still the same plan?’
‘Which plan?’
‘You stun Anne with that anti-jinn weapon, open up a gate and drag her into Elsewhere, get Anne’s two sides to team up and banish the jinn, then you get out of Elsewhere and back to our world.’ Luna looked at me expectantly. ‘Right?’
‘You’re . . . skipping over a lot of problems.’
‘But that’s your plan, right?’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Problem one: that anti-jinn weapon is currently in Richard’s pocket. Problem two: the wards on this shadow realm are stopping me opening a gate to Elsewhere. Problem three: Anne’s two sides hate each other and refuse to work together, and problem four, I’ve no idea how banishing a jinn actually works.’
‘But that’s still your plan,’ Luna said. ‘Right?’
I sighed. ‘Yes.’
Luna shrugged. ‘Four problems doesn’t sound so bad.’
‘Problem five,’ I said. ‘Klara warned me a while ago that using the fateweaver would accelerate its spread. I think using it in Elsewhere does the same, but much faster. When I destroyed Rachel in Elsewhere, the fateweaver jumped from my elbow to my shoulder. I think it’s okay as long as I just dip in and out, but an extended battle against something like the jinn . . . I’ve got the feeling this is something I’m only going to be able to do once.’
‘Oh,’ Luna said. She glanced around; apart from a couple of sentries, we were alone out on the grassy space. ‘This was why you didn’t want to talk about this in front of the Council.’
‘Yeah,’ I said. Of course, even if I could banish the jinn, there was the issue of Anne’s split personality. But I’d been thinking back to my conversations with Dr Shirland, and it had given me some ideas.
‘What about Vari?’ Luna asked.
That problem, on the other hand, I had no answer for at all. Entering Elsewhere was the only card in my hand that I thought gave me any chance at all of banishing a jinn. If I could only do it once, then when I came to Vari I was going to do . . . what? Get him and Anne in the same place and drag them through together? Threaten Anne into ordering the jinn out of him? Knock him out and hand him over to the Council and hope their mages could un-possess him?
All of those plans sounded terrible.
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted at last. We finished a circuit of the millpond and started round again.
‘Look, we need that anti-jinn weapon off Richard anyway, right?’ Luna said. ‘So we mug him first, deal with Vari second, and go after Anne last of all. Use that weapon to get rid of Vari’s jinn, and save your Elsewhere trick for Anne.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘What you just described is something most mages wouldn’t be able to pull off in ten years. You’re suggesting we do it in a day.’
‘Well, a day’s what we’ve got.’
‘And there’s no guarantee this weapon is going to break Vari’s possession.’
‘Do you have any better ideas?’
‘. . . No.’
‘So that’s it then, isn’t it?’ Luna said with a shrug. ‘If this is the only way it can work, then this is the way it’ll have to work.’
I sighed. ‘You really have turned into a chance mage.’
A group of soldiers emerged from the castle, carrying crates. A mage was leading them, and to my surprise I recognised her. Her name was Lumen, a Keeper auxiliary seconded to the Order of the Star. Why was she here?
‘What are they doing?’ Luna asked.
‘No idea,’ I said with a frown. Lumen pointed the men towards the windmill, and they crossed the grass to disappear inside. I couldn’t see what was inside those crates, but from the way the men were walking it looked heavy. As we watched, more soldiers appeared from the castle, also weighed down with cargo.
The twenty minutes Tobias had given us were up. We headed for the ready room.
Landis’s ready room was packed with people. It looked as though every Keeper of the Order of the Shield who’d made it into the shadow realm was standing in a cluster on our side of the room; they were talking and drinking from mugs, looking relaxed. A few nodded to us as we entered. The air smelt of coffee.
Landis and Nimbus were leaning over a projection table, deep in conversation. Two other mages were standing nearby, Sonder and Rain. As I watched, Lumen came through the door after us and walked over to join Sonder. Last was Talisid, or an image of him. The Council mage was a translucent projection of light, hovering in one corner.
I left Luna and walked over to Talisid. ‘Hey,’ I told him.
‘Verus.’ Talisid’s voice echoed from the focus on the ground.
I couldn’t resist. I leant forward and swiped my hand through him.
Talisid’s image fuzzed and re-formed. ‘Yes, Verus, very amusing,’ Talisid said. ‘Was there something you needed?’
From behind, I could sense Luna stifling a laugh. ‘So you didn’t make it into the shadow realm,’ I said. ‘Let me guess, you were at the end of the line?’
‘I was in the rearguard, yes.’
‘That’s what you get for leading from the back.’
‘I’m glad you find this entertaining.’
Being locked out of the shadow realm meant that Talisid – and by extension the Council – would have limited influence on today’s battle. On the one hand, that made it less likely that Alma would betray me at a critical moment. On the other hand, it also meant that Nimbus had near-total authority.
I looked across the room at Nimbus. The Director of Operations of the Order of the Star was making forceful hand gestures as he spoke to Landis, who was standing with his arms folded. Nimbus and I had rarely crossed paths, but from the little I knew of him he seemed ambitious, inflexible and proud. The few times I’d watched him in action, I hadn’t been impressed. That might have come across in our conversation last night. On the other hand, the information I’d given Nimbus had been accurate. Maybe that might have raised his opinion of me?
As if sensing my thoughts, Nimbus glanced up and saw me. His eyes narrowed.
I sighed inwardly. As if I didn’t have enough problems.
‘Right, then!’ Landis called, clapping his hands. ‘Friends, mages, Keepers, lend me your ears.’ I was fairly sure Landis hadn’t slept, but he looked as energetic as ever. ‘Director Nimbus will now grace us with his plans for our day’s entertainment.’
The murmurs of conversation died away. All eyes turned to Nimbus.
Nimbus frowned, clearly not appreciating the levity. ‘The Council has spent the night gathering information and exploring options,’ he announced. ‘We now, for the first time, have a clear understanding of our enemy’s intentions. As a result, it has finally been possible to devise an effective counter-strategy.’
I glanced sideways to see that Luna had moved next to me. I reached out to her through the dreamstone.
Nimbus gestured and the projection table lit up with a three-dimensional image of the castle, sculpted in pale yellow light, a perfect scale model reaching to Nimbus’s waist. If the Council ever runs short on money, they could make a fortune selling their projection tech to Games Workshop.