Then I shook the feeling off. I might have squared things with the Council, but getting that death sentence lifted was only going to help if I survived.
| | | | | | | | |
“There’s going to be a what?” I asked over the phone.
“A demonstration.”
“About?”
“The thing with Daniel Goldman,” Lucian said. “You know?”
Lucian is an adept I first met a year or two ago when he wandered into my shop looking for advice. Most of the adepts I meet that way drift off, but a few stay in touch, and over the years I’ve picked up a pretty decent information network as a result. It’s not much good for learning about what the big dogs are doing, like the Council or Richard—those guys don’t really get down to street level—but it does come in useful. “I heard about it, yeah.”
“So you heard what they did? He was just in that club for a night out. Then the Keepers burst in and they just burnt him to death. No warning, nothing.”
Just in the club for a night out? “That’s not exactly what . . .” I began, then changed my mind. “Never mind. Since when?”
“Last few days, I guess? Ever since the Council cleared that Keeper.”
I frowned. I hadn’t been keeping up with the details, but I had noticed that at some point Daniel Goldman’s death had become politicised—adepts had been holding him up as a symbol of the innocent lives crushed under Council oppression. When the results of the inquiry had been released, it had criticised Reyes but had stopped short of issuing any actual punishment, which unsurprisingly hadn’t pleased anyone. Still, there was something that didn’t quite fit. “Weren’t those findings released about three weeks ago?”
“Yeah.”
“So why are they holding a demonstration now?”
“Took them a while to get organised, I guess.”
“So what are they going to do? Make a bunch of signs and walk up and down outside the War Rooms?”
“Dunno, but a lot of adepts are going,” Lucian said. “Sensitives, too. Everyone’s talking about it, it’s supposed to start after sundown. I think it’s going to be big.”
Something about this was bothering me. The idea of all those adepts just sitting around for three weeks before suddenly deciding to take action felt wrong. Why would they wait so long?
Unless someone’s chosen this particular evening for a reason. “Are you going?” I asked Lucian.
“I was thinking about it,” Lucian admitted.
“If I were you, I’d stay away.”
“Why?”
“Because right now the Council are expecting an attack,” I said. “If you march a crowd of adepts up to the War Rooms they are not going to respond well.”
“We’re the ones getting attacked.”
“Just listen to me, all right? This is sounding like a really bad idea. And spread the word if you can.”
Lucian agreed, but he sounded halfhearted and I wasn’t sure if I’d convinced him. I hung up with a bad feeling, and the more I thought about it, the worse it got. The idea of a crowd of angry adepts trying to do a protest march just as the Council was going to a war footing made me uneasy.
I called Variam, but Vari had his own news. “I’ve been drafted,” he told me.
“To do what?”
“Defend the War Rooms, what do you think?”
“Jesus,” I said. “They’re pulling in apprentices now?”
“More like they really don’t want to lose. The whole Order of the Shield’s been mobilised, and half the Star as well. Called in reserves and everything.”
I did some quick mental arithmetic. “So you’re telling me that more than half the combat-capable Keepers in Britain are going to be at the War Rooms just waiting for someone to stick their nose in so that they can blow it off.”
“Looks like,” Variam said. “Piece of advice, don’t walk in first.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
“You know, I’m kind of hoping that Morden does go ahead with this stupid plan,” Variam said. “I’d love to see the look on his face.”
I frowned. “This feels wrong.”
“Seems pretty right to me.”
“No, I mean we’re missing something,” I said. “Morden isn’t this stupid.”
“Maybe he actually thinks he’s going to win,” Variam said. “I mean, that’s what a lot of Dark mages believe, isn’t it? They think all Light mages are wimps. And yeah, plenty of them are, but when you never run into the ones who aren’t . . .”
“Yes, but Morden’s spent the past year and a half on the Council. He should not be making this sort of mistake.”
“Will you stop worrying about what Morden’s going to do?”
“It’s kind of important to know.”
“No,” Variam said. “It’s not. You’ll find out sooner or later, and then you’ll do what you have to do. You should be worrying about you and Anne.”
I sighed. Yet another problem I don’t know how to solve. “I am worried. I just don’t know what to do about it. When she wouldn’t talk to me, I thought that maybe she just wanted to work through it on her own, but she doesn’t seem to be getting better.”
“Yeah, well, here’s the thing about Anne,” Variam said. “And this is something that most people don’t get. Most people, once they learn what she can do, they think she’s indestructible or something. And they’re right, kind of. She can take a beating and get back up. But she’s got limits . . .” Variam trailed off.
“Limits?” I asked when he didn’t go on.
“Never mind. Just stay close to her.”
“I tried talking—”
“The last thing she needs is another pep talk.”
“Fine,” I said. “You’ve known her longer than I have. What do you recommend?”
“I dunno, how about you try telling her how you feel for once?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
I considered that idea for maybe an eighth of a second before shying away. I did not want to deal with that right now. “This isn’t really the time.”
Variam was silent for a moment. “You know,” he said, “for someone who’s supposed to be so bright, you can be really dumb sometimes.”
“Vari, something useful please?”
“Just remember what I said.”
| | | | | | | | |
The day seemed to take forever, and my mood got worse and worse. Finally, I called Talisid. It took me a while to get through, and when he learnt that I didn’t have any new information about Richard or Morden, he didn’t seem very interested in continuing the call.
“Verus, I appreciate the information about the adepts,” Talisid cut in, “but it’s something we’re aware of. What we want to know about is Morden’s plans.”
“I don’t think he’s going after the War Rooms,” I said.
“You’ve heard from him?”
“No.”
“You’ve heard from someone else in his cabal? Or from Drakh’s?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Then what’s changed?”
“It doesn’t feel right.”
“Unless you have something solid—”
“Listen to me, all right? None of this feels right. You guys are setting up a trap based on the assumption that Morden is stupid. I’ve spent the last eight months working for him, and trust me when I say that that is one thing he is most definitely not.”
“Yes, Verus, I know,” Talisid said. “What you may have failed to take into account is that neither are we. You’re right: it’s very possible that he’s not going to go through with this attack. In fact, I’d say that it’s likely. Now, consider. What will happen if he calls it off?”