“What did you do?” Anne asked.
“Wiped them out, what do you think?” Variam said. “And don’t you even start giving us grief about that. Those things were not willing to sit down and talk.”
“Did Karyos wake up in the middle of one of those attacks?” I asked.
“How’d you guess?” Variam said. “Let’s just say it got a little exciting. Just as well Luna had been playing around with the regeneration thing.”
I looked at Luna. “Well, you weren’t coming back,” she said with a shrug. “I’d been thinking about what to do if we needed it.”
“And you figured out a way to get it working?” I asked.
“Pretty much.”
I was actually impressed. When Arachne had given me that seed, she’d implied that it had been meant to be used by Karyos, not by someone else, particularly not under that kind of time pressure. “Well, it worked,” Anne said. “Karyos is in there, or her new body is.” She nodded towards the cocoon. “And as far as I can tell, it took. She’s bonded to that sapling now.”
“So what does that mean?” Luna asked.
“Means in another few years, that thing’ll open and a baby hamadryad’ll come out.”
“With the freaky roots-for-legs or without?” Luna asked.
I shrugged. “I’m not exactly an expert on this stuff.”
“So is the whole kill-crazy murder-all-humans thing going to carry over as well?” Variam asked. “Because if it does, I’m not sure if Luna did anyone any favours.”
“It shouldn’t,” I said. “That was the whole point of the thing. But now we’ve got another problem.”
“What?”
“I think I know,” Anne said. “This shadow realm’s accessible from the outside, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “And those bodies prove that people know about it.”
Luna looked between the two of us.
“Shadow realms are valuable,” I explained to Luna. “You know how some mages live in their own shadow realm? And how they make sure everyone knows it? It’s a status symbol.”
“I thought they just grew their own.”
“Yes, but it takes years and years, and from what I’ve heard, the only way to find out whether it’s somewhere you want to live or a little pocket hellhole is to wait and see. It’s much easier to find an existing shadow realm that someone else has done the work of making. A place like this?” I nodded at the multicoloured sky, the trees, the warm air. “This is prime real estate. The only reason some mage hasn’t planted their flag here already is that Karyos was defending it.”
“Huh,” Luna said. “So now that she’s gone . . .”
“Now this place is like a three-storey house with a garden in central London. Someone is going to grab it.”
“And the first thing they’ll do is destroy that,” Anne said, nodding to the cocoon. “Or use it for experiments.”
“What if you moved it?” Luna asked.
“It’s too fragile. In six months, maybe, but now . . .”
“Okay, I know I’m sounding like a broken record here,” Variam said, “but I don’t see how any of this is our problem. We wanted dreamstones, we’ve got dreamstones. I say we call the mission a success and bail while the going’s good.”
“And leave her to die?” Anne asked.
“Did you miss the part where she was about to kill us?”
Anne threw up her hands and looked at me. “Can you think of any mage who’d be willing to help?”
“I’ve been trying,” I admitted. “But the only mages I can think of who might be sympathetic don’t really have the resources to take on something like this. Maybe Landis . . .”
Variam shook his head. “He’s got way too much on his plate right now.”
“What about us?” Luna asked.
All three of us looked at her. “I’m not saying we should move in,” Luna said. “But we could set up gate wards and all that stuff, right?”
“None of us knows how to set up gate wards,” Variam said.
Luna pointed at me. “Alex knows people who do.”
“Yeah, but they don’t work for free,” I said.
Luna shrugged. “You’re the one who’s always storing up favours.”
“Come on,” Variam said. “I can’t believe you’re thinking seriously about this. Yes, this place is pretty, but it’s a frigging deathtrap. Hanging out in a place where a crazy dryad’s spent the last fifty years magically modifying every single plant to either poison you or eat you is not my idea of fun!”
“We could clear it out,” Luna said. “The only reason we were having so much trouble was that neither of us had any senses that could tell us what to watch out for. With Anne’s lifesight and your precognition, we could sweep the place.”
“That’ll take days,” I said. “Maybe weeks. And that’s not even the part I’m worried about. What happens when the next bunch of mages comes along? We’d have to set up gate wards and a security system, and the mages who specialise in that kind of stuff don’t work cheap.”
“It’d also give us a base,” Luna pointed out.
That made me pause. Ever since my house in Camden had been burnt down, it had been difficult for the four of us to find places to meet or train. The house in Wales had been a stopgap, but now that I’d abandoned that too, we’d had to fall back upon Arachne’s lair. Which was a good place—a very good place—but it required Arachne to be comfortable with us planning our operations from what was, basically, her living room. She hadn’t complained, but I was uncomfortably aware that we were presuming on her hospitality, and ever since that conversation we’d had in February there’d been the nasty thought at the back of my mind that I could be storing up trouble for the future. Arachne’s position with the Council is precarious, and I’m not a popular person these days. By using her home as a base I could be putting her in danger. Of course, trying to use an unsecured shadow realm as a base would be almost as bad . . .
I paused. Except that I did know someone with the influence to get a shadow realm properly secured, who also owed me favours. Talisid. Was my spying on Richard worth enough to get him to do this?
Maybe I should find out.
“. . . really don’t want to deal with this,” Variam was saying. “Can’t we just—?”
“Okay,” I said.
The others looked at me. “Really?” Variam said.
“No promises, but I’ve got an idea that might be able to help,” I said. “But I only want you guys in on this if you want to be. Vari’s right: it’s going to be a lot of work.”
“I’m up for it,” Luna said. “I kind of like this place, and it’s not like I don’t have the time. Besides, there’s something I’ve been having trouble with that a shadow realm would be handy for. I’ll tell you about it later.”
I looked at Anne, who nodded. “I’d like to,” she said in her soft voice. “I’m the reason Karyos can’t defend herself now. I’m not comfortable leaving her like this.”
Luna turned to Variam with a grin. “Looks like you’re outvoted.”
Variam threw up his hands. “Luna,” I said, and Luna rolled her eyes but didn’t answer. “It’s okay, Vari, you’ve done plenty already. We can handle the cleanup.”
“Yeah, unless you run into another nest of those vampire flowers. What are you going to do, pick them out of the air?” Variam scowled. “Fine. But just so you know, this is a stupid plan.”
“Oh, come on,” Luna said. “How many new journeymen get to say they’re part owner of their own shadow realm?”
“We’re splitting it into parts now?”
I got to my feet. “Come on, guys. Time to go.”
| | | | | | | | |
Walking back into Arachne’s cave felt like coming home after a long, long day. Luna and Variam were exhausted from three days of watching for danger, and I wasn’t much better—the vision or dream or whatever it was in the deep shadow realm had shaken me more than I’d been willing to admit. Only Anne seemed in good shape.