Variam nodded, but I kept going before he could answer. “But there’s a problem. Remember what I told you about the icecats? They went after Leo. Same for that force mage. Caldera and I weren’t the primary target. Leo was.”
Variam frowned. “Okay.”
“So if Chalice was behind the attack, why send me to Uxbridge at all?” I said. “We’d never have found the place in time without her help. If she wanted Leo dead, all she had to do was go there herself. And if she didn’t want Leo dead but she was behind the attack, why was Leo the target?”
“Maybe they didn’t agree—”
I shook my head. “What Chalice did helped us get to Leo. Whoever was behind the attack, their objective was to get rid of Leo. Most logical conclusion: they’re different people. Don’t make things more complicated than they have to be.”
Variam didn’t look a hundred percent convinced, but he shut up. “So does that mean you trust her?” Luna asked.
“No,” I said. “Just because she’s not on their side doesn’t mean she’s on our side. But I think there’s more going on than she’s telling us.”
“So if she wasn’t behind the attack tonight, who was?” Variam asked.
“The Keepers think it’s White Rose,” I said.
“Who?”
“No clue,” I said. I was starting to realise just how out of my depth I was on this case. I needed to talk to someone who was more up to speed on Council politics, and soon. “But whoever they are, I’m not buying that it’s nothing to do with the Council. You know what mantis golems are used for.”
“They’re Council bodyguards,” Luna said.
“They said these ones were reported stolen?” Variam said.
“Bullshit,” I said. “That’s like a Challenger tank getting stolen from the British Army. The army doesn’t lose battle tanks, the RAF doesn’t lose jet fighters, and the Council sure as hell doesn’t lose mantis golems. Whoever went after us tonight, they’re in close with the Council.”
Luna started to say something, but I held up a hand. “There’s something else. Leo was holed up in that house for two days or close to it. We find him, and he gets attacked less than half an hour afterwards. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I looked into the futures while I was waiting for Caldera. There wasn’t any danger, not as long as we stayed outside. Maybe those guys were looking for Leo, but I don’t think they would have found him on their own. I think something we did brought them there.”
“Could have been tracking you,” Variam suggested.
“There’s a simpler explanation. Between going into that house and the attack starting, we did exactly one thing that could have given our position away. Caldera used her com disc to get in touch with her order. And she activated a locator beacon.”
Variam frowned. “Wait,” Luna said. “I thought you said those communicator things were supposed to be untraceable? And no one could intercept them?”
“He’s not saying they were traced,” Variam said. He was watching me, his voice flat. “You’re saying you got set up.”
“Wait,” Luna said, her eyes going wide. “You’re saying the Keepers want to kill you? You managed to piss them off that much already?”
“If the Order of the Star really wanted to kill us, we’d already be dead,” I said. “I told you, the target was Leo.”
“What happened to him, anyway?”
“We couldn’t find him,” Variam said. He didn’t take his eyes off me. “You think someone in the Order of the Star’s a traitor.”
“I hate to sound cynical, but it’s probably more than one,” I said. “You know how many factions there are on the Council—they’ve all got their agents and their areas of influence. Leo was connected to the Rayfield case, and Haken already told me that half a dozen factions are interested. One of those factions must have not wanted Leo brought in.”
“Do you think they wanted to kill him first?” Luna said.
“More likely they kidnapped him.”
“Who was it?” Variam said.
“That I don’t know.”
“You said there was an ice mage and a force mage,” Luna said. “You could try that . . .”
“Doubt it’ll help,” I said. “Whoever’s behind this probably isn’t the kind to do their own dirty work. No, what we really need to figure out is what Leo knew that was enough of a threat for them to move like this.”
“He was a witness,” Variam said. “If he’d made it, first thing they’d have done would have been pull him in for an interview . . .”
“. . . and find out what he saw,” I finished. “But we do know what he saw, because of Caldera. He saw the guy the rest of the Order of the Star’s been looking for. Rayfield.”
Luna’s eyebrows had been gradually climbing higher and higher, and at this point she put up her hands. “Ugh, God. This is so confusing. I have no idea what’s going on anymore.”
“Maybe if you actually went to your politics classes,” Variam said, “instead of bunking off to go duelling.”
“Oh, like you’re some sort of—”
“Luna, Vari! Not now!”
Luna and Variam shut up. I pulled over the notepad that Chalice had used earlier in the evening, flipped to a new page, and began sketching. “It’s not as complicated as you think. Here.” I turned the pad around; I’d drawn an equilateral triangle with the three corners marked and labelled. “There are three factions that we need to worry about. First is White Rose.” I tapped my pencil to the first of the three corners. “Whoever they are, they’re the ones who sent Leo to that meeting with Rayfield two nights ago. As far as we know, they haven’t done anything else, but if Caldera’s that careful around them then they’re not anyone we want to mess with.”
Variam looked down at the diagram and then up at me. “You’re explaining this by drawing it in a triangle.”
“And . . . ?”
Variam shook his head. “You are such a geek sometimes.”
I moved my pencil to the second corner. “Next faction is our mysterious group who were behind the attack tonight. We know they’ve got ties to the Council and some way of getting supposedly secure data from the Keepers. They also wanted Leo silenced, so I think it’s a safe bet they’ve got some kind of investment in the Rayfield case. Either they don’t want the truth getting out, or they want to learn it first.”
“The Keepers think those people and White Rose are the same people,” Luna said. “Right?”
“Right, which I’m not buying.” I touched the tip of the pencil to the last corner, labelled with a name and a question mark. “And finally, we’ve got our dark horse. The ones who hired Chamois. That’s where this whole thing started. Chamois crashed the meeting between Rayfield and Leo at Pudding Mill Lane, he either killed Rayfield or made him disappear thoroughly enough that no one’s found him, and the focus got lost in the fight.” I tapped my pencil on the question mark. “This is the key to the whole thing, I’m sure of it. If we can figure out who Chamois is working for, and why he attacked Rayfield, we’ll understand what’s really going on.”
“Okay . . .” Luna said. “So how do we do that?”
“That’s the problem,” I said. “I have no idea. So we’ll have to work on the two groups where we do have something to go on.” I moved my pencil to the other two points. “I’ll go talk to Caldera tomorrow, find out what she knows about White Rose. What I can’t ask about is this Council group. I’ve got my suspicions, but if I go poking around it could lead to really bad things. You guys are apprentices though. Especially you, Vari—I think Landis might know a bit he’s not telling.”
Vari nodded. “I want to try talking to Chalice,” Luna said.
“In the middle of this?”
“Well, since someone won’t let me come along on their important official Keeper stuff, there’s not much else I can do, is there? Besides, none of the guys you’re talking about would know anything about what’s happening on the Dark side of the fence. And we already know she wants to talk to me.”