‘It is not,’ I tell her. ‘I know how short-handed you guys are. Variam was pulled off sick leave to take cases from your order. So don’t tell me that you coming here three times in three weeks is routine.’
Saffron stares at me for a few seconds. I don’t back down, and it’s Saffron who turns away. She walks around the shelves and herb rack, then leans on the counter and takes out a stick of gum. ‘They’ve done more auguries.’ She unwraps the gum and pushes it into her mouth. ‘Came out the same. Drakh is dead. Verus is dead. Anne Walker is alive.’
‘Okay?’
‘Tracking spells,’ Saffron said. She chews on her gum, then pushes it into her cheek. ‘No reading on Drakh, no reading on Verus, no reading on Walker.’
‘Which is what you expect from someone who can do a life shroud,’ I say. ‘Look, if you’re expecting me to help you find her, forget it. The deal was she got a full pardon.’
‘She’s not the problem,’ Saffron says. ‘Drakh is. Yeah, the auguries, but he’s blocked divinations before. How do we know he’s not doing it again? The Council wants a body. Something they can hold up and say: look, he’s dead, war’s over.’
‘Yeah, well, they’re going to have to get used to disappointment.’
‘You know what happened in that shadow realm?’
‘I know two different mages sensed Alex and Richard fighting in the keep right at the end,’ I tell her. ‘A death mage and a space mage, wasn’t it?’
‘How’d you hear that?’
I’m getting annoyed again. I don’t know whether Saffron does it on purpose or whether Keepers are just like this. ‘Oh, I don’t know, because I was there? Where were you, by the way? Don’t remember seeing you on the front lines.’
Saffron narrows her eyes a bit. Guess that one got through. ‘Anyway, where was I?’ I say. ‘Oh right. Now both of those sightings were right before the last Council mages got out. And according to Compass, by that point the whole place was on the edge of falling apart.’
‘Anne Walker made it out.’
‘Well, it doesn’t sound like anyone else did, does it?’
‘That’s not proof.’
‘Look, I don’t know what the Council thinks it’s going to get here,’ I tell her. ‘But if it’s really Drakh you’re worried about, then for what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure he’s dead.’
Saffron stares at me, chewing away at her gum. ‘All right,’ she says, and pushes herself off the counter. ‘We’re going to need you to sign a statement.’
‘I already signed a bloody statement. I’m not doing another because you can’t be bothered to dig the old one out of your filing cabinet.’
I expect Saffron to keep pushing but she doesn’t. ‘Thanks for your time,’ she tells me. She walks down the length of the shop, past me and Ji-yeong.
Ji-yeong and I watch her go.
Saffron puts her hand on the door handle, then suddenly looks back. ‘Where’s Verus?’
For a moment I feel a weird sensation, like a featherlight brush across my thoughts. But I know that trick and I don’t let my concentration slip. I keep my thoughts in the present, taking in the shop around me, the sight of Saffron at the door. I look straight at her and think very clearly. Try and read my mind again, and we’ll see how well my magic works on you.
Saffron flinches and the moment’s gone. I give her a smile. ‘I’m sorry. Did you say something?’
‘No,’ Saffron says flatly. She looks from me to Ji-yeong. ‘You two watch yourself.’ The bell goes ding-ding and she’s gone.
We watch her walk away up the road. Only when she’s out of sight do I sigh and let my shoulders slump.
‘She’s scared of you,’ Ji-yeong says.
‘Funny way of showing it.’ I look at the sign; it’s still on CLOSED and when I think about flipping it to OPEN something in me rebels. ‘I think I’m closing up for the day.’ Saying it makes me feel a bit guilty, but it is my shop.
Ji-yeong nods. ‘Thanks,’ she says as she gets up.
‘For what?’
‘I would have had to go if she’d pushed it,’ Ji-yeong says with a shrug. ‘They don’t want me here.’
I’m not sure what to say to that. Ji-yeong opens the door.
‘Wait,’ I tell her.
Ji-yeong pauses. ‘If you’re still figuring things out,’ I say, ‘and you want someone to talk to, you can come to me. Okay?’
Ji-yeong thinks about it for a second, then nods. ‘Okay.’ The door closes behind her.
I watch her walk away in the opposite direction from Saffron, and shake my head. ‘Weird girl,’ I say to myself, then turn the lock on the door.
I climb the stairs to the flat. There’s a text on my phone from Vari; it must have come in while I was with Saffron. He’s been pulled in for a double shift and won’t be done until midnight.
I still haven’t really talked with Vari since the battle. I mean, not properly. He’s not hurt – the marid kept its promise – and the Council doesn’t seem to be blaming him for anything. But he hasn’t been dealing with it all that well. He tells me he’s being given these extra shifts, but I’m starting to get the feeling he’s just trying to stay busy so he doesn’t have time to think. It’s what I used to do.
We haven’t talked about the deal I made either.
The monkey’s paw is sitting at the back of the drawer. I could point to it with my eyes closed, and thinking about it brings a complicated mix of feelings, like a knot I can’t untie. Was I wrong to say yes? Could I have done anything else? What happens when it goes through with its side of the bargain? Can I really just sit there and watch someone walk away with it?
I shake it off and open my laptop. Half a dozen new emails. Two are from adepts about that network. I thought someone else was supposed to be setting it up but they’re acting like they’re waiting for me. A report from November, three pages long. Another question for the Emporium account. A message from a guy who claims he used to sell to Alex – he’s got some new stock and wants to know if I’m interested. I’ll have to check whether he’s telling the truth.
The flat feels lonely. I use it, but I don’t sleep here. It’s not really a home.
There’s plenty of work but I don’t feel like it. I wish Ji-yeong had hung around. She’s strange, but I can talk to her.
I could call Chalice. She sent me a message last week saying we should catch up, but I’m kind of suspicious. Chalice has been getting involved with the Council – it’s sounding like she’s going to be one of the new aides. Problem is, a couple of things she’s said make me think she wants me as her aide. Right now, most Light mages have forgotten about me, but if I start showing up at the War Rooms then pretty soon everyone’s going to remember that I was Alex’s apprentice. And once they remember that, it won’t take long before they start thinking I’m trying to follow in his footsteps. I saw where that got Alex. No thanks.
Still don’t want to sit down at that desk.
I shouldn’t be complaining. It was only seven years ago I walked into this shop for the first time. Back then I had no money, a rented flat, and a curse I couldn’t control. I didn’t know anything about magic and I was about two bad days away from suicide. Now I’m an independent mage with a shop and a home of my own. I’ve got more than I ever dreamed of.
But none of it’s worth anything without people to share it with.
You know what? I open the desk drawer and pull out my box of gate stones. They’re labelled with little tags, and I rummage for the one I need. World’s not going to end if I take a half day off.