‘You hang around with Rachel, Crystal and Vihaela, and you’re giving me a hard time about my choice in women?’
‘Well, there’s no accounting for taste,’ Richard said. ‘In any case, take Anne and be done with her. Quite frankly, I’ll be happy if I never see her again.’
I didn’t move. I knew Richard hadn’t come here just to tell me that.
‘The ring, however, is another matter.’ Richard held out his hand. ‘If you don’t mind?’
I looked at him.
‘I would really appreciate it if you don’t fight me on this one, Alex.’
‘Do you have a new host lined up? Or are you going to do it yourself for a change?’
‘I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later.’
‘No, I don’t think I will.’
A shudder went through the keep. I heard a cracking, groaning sound, and felt the floor tremble as something collapsed far below. ‘This strikes me as neither the time nor the place,’ Richard said.
‘Maybe you should have thought of that before triggering that isolation ward,’ I said. ‘And actually, I’d say that the middle of yet another one of your giant destructive screw-ups is a very appropriate place.’
‘For heaven’s sake, Alex,’ Richard said in exasperation. ‘The last time we had one of these conversations, you made it clear that the girl was your sticking point. That you were doing all this for her. Well, you’ve got her, and you even have enough time to spirit her away somewhere safe before you finally fall over dead. Your objective has been achieved.’
I nodded.
‘So can you please explain why you are standing in my way?’
‘One question first,’ I said. ‘Why?’
‘Why am I here? Why am I talking to you? Why do I—?’
‘Why any of it,’ I said. ‘What was it for?’
‘If you can’t figure that out by now . . .’
‘Oh, I know what your plan was,’ I said. ‘Control the marid, make an army of jinn mages, take over the country. But what was the point? Even before this war, you were one of the most powerful Dark mages in Britain. You had a mansion filled with servants, apprentices vying to be your successor. Wealth, status, women – anything you could have wanted, you only had to snap your fingers. But somehow none of that was enough.’
‘I did have such ambitions in my younger days,’ Richard said. ‘But the trappings of success grow stale.’
‘Then what doesn’t? More power?’
‘Essentially.’
‘When does it stop?’ I asked. ‘Say you’d succeeded, taken over the country, then what? Would you have built a bigger army, aimed for other countries? All of Europe? The world?’
‘The world seems a little ambitious,’ Richard said. ‘But as long as it works . . .’
‘You still haven’t given me an answer.’
‘Honestly, Alex,’ Richard said. ‘Look at anyone who rises to the top. The Senior Council, the presidents and prime ministers of the modern age, the kings and warlords of olden times. Why do you think they do it? To change the world? Power doesn’t need a purpose: power is its own purpose. It is the only goal that has value in itself, because it is the means by which all other goals are achieved.’
‘So you’re saying it’s never enough. There’s always more.’
‘Alex, I’ve tried to be patient with you. I have answered your questions and explained my reasons. However, my patience is not unlimited and I do not intend to stand around debating you until this shadow realm collapses. Give me the ring.’
‘No.’
Richard rolled his eyes. ‘You’re as bad as she is.’
‘For someone who spends so much time manipulating people, you have some real blind spots about how they work.’
‘Enlighten me, then,’ Richard said with a sigh. ‘You’ve gone to all these extraordinary lengths to save the girl lying on the floor behind you. And against all odds, you’ve done it. You’ve won! All you have to do is hand over an item – one which was not even yours to begin with, I should add – and that would be the end of it. But instead you’ve decided to turn around just before the finish line.’
‘Well, here’s the thing,’ I said. ‘I don’t think that would be the end of it. I’m sure if I hand over this ring you’ll go on your way quite happily. But sooner or later, in a year or five years or ten years, you’ll pop up with a new host and a new army and start all over again. Because just like you said, it’s never enough. You’ll never be satisfied with what you have, and that means you’ll keep coming back again and again until someone stops you.’
‘I remember a boy who cared nothing for others. Who was quite happy to let them fight, while he followed his own path.’
‘I haven’t been that boy for a long time. And the biggest reason for that is you. You’re more willing to get your hands dirty than the Light Council, but you know one thing you and the Council have in common? You both like to push the dirty jobs off onto someone else. And a lot of that time, that someone has been me. You see it from on high as a chess game between kings and princes. But when I see it from ground level it’s a lot harder to ignore the costs.’ I looked Richard in the eyes. ‘You have left a trail of death and destruction and misery everywhere you have gone. Some of the people you trampled chose to fight you; some were just unlucky enough to be in your way. But no matter what, every part of the world is a worse place once you’ve been there. You were willing to start a war that could have brought a new age of darkness, all to get one over on the Council.’
‘You were the one who decided freeing that marid was a good idea,’ Richard said. ‘Though I suppose you did eventually clean up your own mess.’
‘But worse than any of that,’ I said, ‘is that you lead other people into evil. You built up that army of adepts with promises and honeyed words, and led them to their deaths while you walked away. You started a war between mages and adepts and a whole lot of regular people, most of whom had probably never even heard of you but who just happened to get caught in the crossfire. And if you want the best example, look at your own apprentices. We were supposed to be your legacy, weren’t we? The proof of your greatness. Well, take a look how we turned out. Tobruk, dead. Shireen, dead. Rachel, insane and dead. I’m the only one left, and I’m willing to risk my life to stop you. “By their fruits ye shall know them”, isn’t it? What does that say about you?’ I looked straight at Richard. ‘You’re worse than a warlord. You’re a bad teacher.’
Richard’s smile slipped. In the seventeen years I’d known him, it was the first time I’d seen him genuinely insulted. ‘I gave you everything. I made you.’
‘Oh, all those things you gave me! You made me a Dark apprentice at seventeen, a criminal at eighteen, a slave at nineteen and a murderer by twenty. Every one of the worst things in my life traces right back to that day you walked up to me on the school playground.’
‘You were nothing when I found you!’ Richard snapped. ‘Everything you learnt, you learnt from me! You think I haven’t noticed you copying my tricks?’ He took a breath, seemed to calm himself. ‘Well. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. But I did expect some level of gratitude.’
‘Gratitude?’ My voice cracked as I finally lost my temper. ‘You self-satisfied arsehole. You have never taken responsibility for the shit you’ve done, not once! Even when your jinn nearly wrecked the whole country you blamed it on me!’ I tightened my grip on the sovnya to stop my fingers from trembling. ‘I am sick of you, sick of you coming back over and over again to ruin my life. Now I’ll make you an offer. You turn around and walk away, and you never go near me or Anne or this ring as long as you live. Because if I ever see you again, it’ll be the last time.’