“Okay. Stay where you are and text if anyone follows.” I set my phone to silent and dropped it into my pocket, already scanning ahead to see if the person Luna had spotted was coming here.
They were, and they were close: less than thirty seconds out. The bedroom was the worst place for me to be: too small, only one exit, and if the new visitor was here for the same reason I was then it would be the place they’d search most closely. I switched off my torch and moved back to the entry room, relying on my diviner’s senses to navigate. I could hear footsteps approaching the door. They’d be opening it with a key . . . how did they have a key? The room didn’t have many hiding places, so I stepped behind the door. Even if they switched the light on, I’d be out of sight.
The key turned in the lock and the door swung open. Skimming through the futures I could see violence—were they going to detect me? What did I need to do to stay hidden? Heavy footfalls approached. Every future held confrontation or combat, there didn’t seem to be any way of avoiding—they knew I was there. In fact, they knew exactly where I was and they were coming for me.
So much for the subtle approach.
The footsteps entered the room, passing me by on the other side of the open door. They checked and turned, and I knew my mystery guest was about to yank the door open and pull me out. Screw that. I kicked the door into them as they reached for it and followed it out with a double-handed shove.
I caught her (it was definitely a her) by surprise, but she was big and tough and I didn’t push her back far. It was still pitch-black and I tried to slip past, picking out the futures in which I found the gap, but she moved to block me and that future winked out. She tried a grab; I ducked and heard her arm swoosh over my head as I hit her in the gut, left and right. I’d used an open-palm strike and it was just as well; her body felt like rock and if I’d punched I probably would have broken my knuckles. She aimed a knee at my head that would have knocked me out if it had connected; I half-blocked it and while I was still staggering from that she grabbed me and did her level best to slam me into the floor.
The two of us struggled in the darkness, twisting and stumbling. The woman was strong, really strong, and I could feel magic radiating from her limbs and body. I knew I wasn’t going to win a wrestling match, and I abruptly stopped resisting and went with the throw, rolling backwards on the carpet, bristles digging into my neck and skin as I came over and back to my feet. The movement had reversed the hold and now I had her arm twisted around, but even with the leverage I couldn’t force her down and she slammed me into the door, sending pain stabbing through my back. I stomped on the side of her knee, making her stagger, then yanked an item from my belt and stabbed her with it.
The focus was a thin sliver of metal, and if there had been any light it would have looked silver. Its tip was blunt but as it struck it discharged the energy stored inside it, sending it flashing out and though her body. The magic radiating from her suddenly vanished.
Knocking out the woman’s defensive spells accomplished what hitting her hadn’t. She swore and let go, jumping back out of range. I took one step towards the doorway, then paused. In my mage’s sight I could see the brownish glow of earth magic as the woman recast her spells, rebuilding her defences. The pattern was familiar . . . “Caldera?”
Caldera had been about to advance again, but now she stopped. “Who are you?”
“Who am I? What the hell are you doing?”
“This is private property,” Caldera said sharply. “Identify yourself.”
“I’m not talking to you in the dark. Switch the damn light on.”
There was a suspicious silence, then Caldera moved to the wall and light flooded the room with a click. We stood and blinked at each other for a moment. “Verus?” Caldera said in disbelief.
“What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I asked first.”
“This isn’t a bloody playground,” Caldera said in annoyance. “You’re on Council property.”
Caldera is thirty or so, with a round face and red cheeks. She’s half a foot shorter than me and a lot wider, with a body that’s heavy with fat and muscle, and she’s a Council Keeper of the Order of the Star, which in magical terms is something like a cross between political investigator and military police. Caldera’s on the “military police” end of the scale, but I’ve worked with her a few times over the past year. I wouldn’t say we’re friends, but she’s always kept her word and I’d trust her more than any other Keeper I can think of. Whether she felt the same way about me was another question, although given the circumstances it looked as though I might be about to find out.
“I don’t know about the Council property part,” I said, “but I do know that a friend of mine lives here.” Stretching the truth twice in one sentence, but Caldera probably didn’t know that . . . “You have any idea where she’s gone?”
“When did you last see her?”
Just last night, we were having an argument alone in the woods right before she disappeared . . . Yeah, that was going to get a great reaction. “Why are you asking?” I said, then raised my hands. “Okay, okay, look. There’s a mage living here by the name of Anne Walker, as I’m guessing you already know or you wouldn’t be here. My apprentice has been trying to call her all day and she hasn’t been picking up, so I headed over to see if she was all right.”
“Then what was the idea of picking a fight with me?”
“You started it.”
“You’re a suspect at a potential crime scene,” Caldera said. I noticed she said you’re instead of you were. “You make a habit of attacking Keepers on official business?”
“For all I knew, you were a subject at a potential crime scene. And if you’re acting in your capacity as a Keeper, maybe you should announce that first. Seriously, this is what, the second time you’ve had a go at throwing me around? Were you disappointed you didn’t get a good enough fight the first try?”
Caldera made an exasperated noise. “I don’t have time to argue with you. Let me do my job, all right?”
“There’s something I’d better show you first,” I said, becoming serious. “If you’re here for the same reason I am, you’re going to want to take a look at this.”
Once in Anne’s bedroom, Caldera made a beeline for the overturned table and crouched next to it, frowning. “Did you touch anything?”
“No.”
Caldera twisted her neck to stare at me. “You sure?”
“This is how it looked when I got here.”
Caldera grunted and turned back to the scattered debris. I stayed quiet and didn’t bug her. “I’m going to make a call,” she said at last, rising to her feet. “You stay here. If you do a runner I’ll arrest you. Clear?”
“The threats don’t help, you know,” I said mildly. “Yes, you’re clear.”
Caldera went out into the entry corridor and I promptly started looking into the futures to eavesdrop. A brisk contest of stealth and perception took place between hypothetical future me and hypothetical future Caldera, which ended with me able to pick out odd words of her half of the conversation. She was telling someone to come here and to hurry. I took the opportunity to send Luna a message updating her on what was going on.
“Right,” Caldera said once she’d finished, dropping her phone into her pocket as she reentered the bedroom. “When did you last see Miss Walker? And don’t dodge the question this time.”
Apparently my earlier evasion hadn’t been all that subtle. I’d had time to think about how to answer and had decided to go with the truth—it’s easier to remember and you don’t have to worry so much about being caught out. “Last night,” I began, and gave Caldera a short account of the evening, accurate as far as it went but with the more personal details edited out.