“What’s that?” Luna asked.
“It’s a large-scale focus that acts as a magnifying effect,” Sonder said. “As long as you’re within the area you can use the energy to power spells that are much more powerful than normal, or ones from a different type of magic than you should be able to use.”
“If they’re so good, why doesn’t everyone use them?” Variam said.
“Well, an envelopment focus only works within the physical area it covers. And the spells that run it are unstable, so they need a lot of maintenance. Basically it makes you more powerful, but only as long as you stay in one place.”
“Why didn’t any other mage take Fountain Reach for himself after Vitus disappeared?” I said.
“They couldn’t get the wards to work,” Sonder said. “Vitus had attuned them to himself.”
I nodded. “And if it had been built in with the physical design of the place, it would have been more trouble than it was worth to change it.”
“If those mages couldn’t get Fountain Reach to work for them, how did Crystal do it?” Luna asked.
“Guess she figured it out,” Variam said.
Sonder frowned. “But the mages who investigated the wards after Vitus’s disappearances were. . Well, I actually know two of them and they know more about focus magic than almost anyone else in the country. If they couldn’t reattune the wards I don’t see how she could have.”
“Who cares?” Variam said. “Maybe she just didn’t bother.”
“But that would have problems too. Even if they aren’t directly designed to defend the location, living in a place where you don’t have any control over the ward layout is-”
“Okay, look,” Luna said. “What about that missing girl? It has to be the same thing, right?”
Anne and Sonder looked at each other. “I’m not sure,” Sonder said. He looked troubled.
“I am,” Luna said. “Alex, do you think if we went looking we’d find a bunch of other people going missing there?”
I thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Maybe not obviously. . but yes.”
“I don’t know how they missed this,” Sonder said. “Fountain Reach was investigated-”
“Fountain Reach was investigated for disappearances involving mages,” I said. “But I’ll bet you the Council never looked into what happened to normal people who went there.”
“But it still doesn’t make sense,” Sonder objected. “It’s the apprentice disappearances we’re trying to solve, and there’s still no connection-”
“About that.” I got to my feet. “Come with me for a second. There’s something I’d like you to check.”
* * *
Fountain Reach was a cluster of light against the winter darkness. Stars twinkled down from above, and from the mansion dozens of windows glowed. We were at the edge of the woods bordering the gardens and even across the lawn we could hear the chatter of voices through the thick walls. Everything else was black.
“What are we doing here?” Sonder asked, shivering. Away from the warmth of Variam’s fire spells, his breath was a pale shadow in the cold air.
“What you just told us was useful,” I said, “but it wasn’t why I asked you to come down. When’s your best guess on when Yasmin went missing?”
“About one o’clock this morning.”
“I want you to look back into the past over the period immediately after that. Let’s say a three-hour window.”
“Look, even if it was here, you know the wards would stop any-”
“The wards prevent scrying inside the house,” I said. “I want you to search the grounds around the house.”
“For what?”
“Nothing,” I said truthfully. “See what you find.”
Sonder sighed and closed his eyes. Behind him Anne, Variam, and Luna were half hidden by the trees, though only Luna was shivering. “Do you want me to look around the front?” Sonder asked.
“No,” I said. “The farther out of view the better.”
Sonder fell silent. The only noise was the murmur of voices drifting across the gardens. I kept my arms folded against the chill, trying not to show how tense I was. Minutes passed and I forced myself to stay patient. I went over the reasoning in my mind, checking it for holes. It all hung together. Sonder ought to find. .
“Huh,” Sonder said, interrupting my thoughts. “That’s funny.”
“What?”
“There’s an empty patch.”
“A shroud?”
“Yeah. One-fifteen to one-eighteen.”
“Okay,” I said, making sure to keep my voice calm. “Is it the same shroud? The same as when-?”
“Yes,” Sonder said. He was looking at me. “The same one that was used at Kings Cross and all the others.”
“Now check the time the last apprentice disappeared,” I said. “Vanessa. Same deal, the period immediately after she went missing.”
It only took Sonder a minute this time. “It’s the same,” he said. I couldn’t make out his expression, but he was looking at me. “Alex, this means-”
“Check them all.”
* * *
It was the same with all of them. The disappearances of all the missing apprentices matched up with a period of shrouded time in the back of Fountain Reach. By tracing the exact activation of the shroud, Sonder was able to figure out that the person using it had come from the woods to a little-used side door set into the mansion, half hidden by the bushes. Backtracking, we found that all of the routes led back to one of a pair of clearings a few minutes into the trees, where they stopped.
“But where did they come from?” Luna asked once we’d withdrawn back to the campsite nd had warmed up again.
“A gate spell,” Sonder said. “It has to be.”
“Why didn’t they just gate into the mansion?” Variam said.
“They couldn’t,” I said. “The wards over Fountain Reach stop you from gating inside. But they don’t stop you from gating nearby and walking in. It’s how half the guests have been getting here.”
We sat around the fire in silence for a minute. “This means it’s Crystal, doesn’t it?” Luna said at last.
“We don’t have any proof of that,” Sonder said.
“It’s her house.”
“Yes, but all we know is that someone used a shroud,” Sonder argued. “I know it’s suspicious but it’s not enough to bring to the Council. Anyway, we don’t have a motive.”
“Harvesting,” Variam said instantly.
I shook my head. “It was one of the first things I thought too, but it doesn’t fit. Harvesting is incredibly dangerous. Even doing it once is likely to kill you. To do it over and over again you’d have to be suicidal, and Crystal isn’t.”
“But how could it be Crystal?” Anne asked.
“Why can’t it be?” Luna said.
“That missing girl,” Anne said. “She disappeared back when the house still belonged to Vitus Aubuchon, thirty years ago. Crystal is. . thirty-four?”
“Thirty-five,” I said.
“So Crystal couldn’t have done it,” Anne said. “She would have been five years old.”
“So maybe that was some other mage,” Variam said.
“Come on,” Luna said. “Two different mages just happen to kidnap a victim of the same age at the same place?”
“What do you think?” Sonder asked me.
“It can’t be a coincidence,” I said. “But if I had to guess, I’d go with Luna. I think it’s Crystal who’s been doing this.” I looked around the four of them. “Something that’s been bothering me from the start is how neat all these disappearances have been. The victims never seem to fight back-it’s as if they just walk out the door. Well, maybe that’s exactly what has been happening. A mind mage like Crystal can overwhelm someone fast, especially someone young and inexperienced. And it would explain why we’ve never had any witnesses. Wiping memories is well within her range.”
“But what about the girl from thirty years ago?” Anne asked.
“Before I met Crystal I did some digging,” I said. “She’s never taken an apprentice or taught any classes. In fact, until this tournament she’s never shown any interest in apprentices at all. I think it stems from when she came to Fountain Reach.”