“. . . and that was the last time I saw her,” I finished.
“Has anybody else you know had any contact with her since then?”
“No. I told you, we haven’t heard anything else.”
Caldera grunted and I knew she’d be checking up on that later. “Okay, I’ve answered your questions,” I said. “Now why are you here?”
“This is Council property.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Sorry. Classified.”
I studied Caldera and folded my arms.
Caldera glanced around. “You need to clear the area. There’ll be someone—”
“Keepers from the Order of the Star don’t get sent on property inspections,” I said. “You’d only be here if there was something involving the Concord of the Council.” I looked at Caldera thoughtfully. “I’m guessing something triggered a flag. Maybe a report . . . or some kind of alarm? Otherwise you wouldn’t have assumed I was a suspect.”
Caldera looked back at me without expression. “But your remit is the Concord,” I said. “Anne’s not a recognised mage or an apprentice of one. You shouldn’t have any reason to be here . . . unless someone from the Council specifically asked you to . . .” I started scanning through the futures. Who was Caldera waiting for?
“You can go now,” Caldera said.
The future I was looking for came into focus and I snapped my fingers. “Sonder.” I pointed at Caldera. “He’s the reason you’re here. And you’re waiting for him to show up so he can look back to see what happened.” I paused. “So do you still need me to go? I’m pretty sure I already know anything I’d learn from seeing Sonder show up, but if it’s important . . .”
Caldera sighed. “Goddamn it. Do you have any idea how annoying you are?”
That was more or less what I’d said to Luna. Maybe I was teaching her bad habits. “Look, I’m sorry about the fight. If I’d known it was you—”
“You know what?” Caldera said. “I’m going to do what I ought to do more often. I’m making you someone else’s problem.”
We stood in silence for a little while. My chest and hands still ached a little from the scuffle. “So, you practice judo?” I asked. “That felt like a hip throw.”
“Just the techniques,” Caldera said. “I don’t have a belt.” She eyed me. “What was that thing you hit me with?”
“Dispelling focus.”
“You get into fights with mages that often?”
“It’s meant more for constructs. Just out of curiosity, how much of that strength of yours is muscle and how much is magic?”
“Drop by the gym some day and find out.”
I grinned at her. “Is that a challenge?”
Caldera’s phone rang and she moved off again to answer it. I took the opportunity to send Luna another message, telling her where to run into Sonder. He was only a few minutes out, and it didn’t take long before I heard his voice and Luna’s echoing up the stairs.
Sonder is a Light mage with messy hair and glasses, twenty-two years old but still with a teenager’s awkwardness. He’s actually younger than Luna, Anne, and Variam, but he’s a journeyman mage while they’re still apprentices, despite the fact that all three could probably take him in a fight. (In theory, your rank in the Light Council is a reflection of your skill as a mage, but in practice good connections count for a lot more than ability, which I suppose isn’t very different from most jobs.)
Sonder and I used to get on pretty well, at least until last year. Anne wasn’t the only mage who’d had a problem with what I’d done to the Nightstalkers; Sonder really isn’t comfortable with violence, and his finding out how I’d dealt with the adepts last summer had pretty much killed our friendship. I’d made a few attempts to get back in touch with him and we’d met once or twice, but there had been a distance in his manner which hadn’t been there before. I wasn’t expecting this conversation to go well.
Sonder entered Anne’s flat and stopped as he saw me. “Why are you here?”
I sighed. When you’re dealing with people who aren’t going to be happy to see you, being able to see the future isn’t as much fun as you’d think. “Is everyone going to say that?”
Sonder turned to Caldera. “What’s he doing here?”
Caldera finished her call and started typing into her phone instead, giving Sonder a shrug. “He says same reason as you.”
Luna stuck her head in around the door. “Something wrong?”
Sonder turned distractedly from her to Caldera. “Can’t you get rid of him?”
“It’s your investigation,” Caldera told Sonder without looking up.
I blinked. Sonder’s investigation?
“I don’t think you should be here,” Sonder told me.
“Not this again,” I said. “Look, I’ve just spent half an hour telling the story to Caldera. Are you here because of Anne or not?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then you need to check the bedroom. I think something’s happened to her and whatever it is, it’s a lot more important than arguing with me. If you look back and there’s nothing to see, then great, you can interrogate me afterwards. But if something has happened, then we’re wasting time we probably don’t have.”
“Sonder?” Luna said. “What’s the problem?”
Sonder hesitated. It was obvious he didn’t want me around, but he was rational enough to realise that what I was saying made sense. And there was another factor, which had been behind my reason to send Luna after him; Sonder’s had a not-very-subtle crush on Luna for years, and he had to be aware that starting a fight with me in front of her wouldn’t end well.
“All right,” Sonder said at last with poor grace. He started past me.
“The bedroom’s—” I began as Sonder passed.
“I know where it is.”
I watched Sonder go, then turned to Caldera, who’d been observing the whole thing with undisguised amusement. “Why is it that whenever I actually try to help someone I never get any credit for it?”
“Now you know what every day of my job’s like,” Caldera said. “Quit whining, you’ve got it easy.”
“What’s the problem?” Luna asked.
“Don’t ask. Did Sonder tell you why he was here?”
“Yeah, he said there was an alarm triggered last night.” Luna looked worried. “Some kind of passive sensor. Where’s Anne?”
“Sonder’ll know what happened soon enough.” I knew that if I walked into the bedroom right now I’d see him staring into space, lost in the trance of his timesight. I looked at Caldera. “How did you get involved?”
“How do you think?”
“Look, it’s not that I’m not grateful for having you around,” I said. “But given that Anne isn’t covered by the Concord, why are you here?”
Caldera paused for a moment. “Why are you here?”
“Because I’m worried about Anne,” I said. “Luna thinks something might have happened, and I think she’s right.” Not to mention that I was looking into the future to see what Sonder was going to tell us, and the signs were looking worse and worse.
“That’s the only reason?” Caldera said. “No vigilantes chasing you this time? You doing this just to save your own neck?”
“No.”
Caldera studied me for a long moment and I looked back at her, holding her gaze. “My boss said the same thing you did,” she said at last. “That it wasn’t a Concord matter.”
“And?”
“And Sonder pointed out that the last person known to have attacked Miss Walker was someone who very definitely does come under our jurisdiction. A mage named Crystal who’s a wanted fugitive.”
“Ah,” I said. Crystal is a mind magic user and an ex–Light mage who came to the Council’s attention a year and a half ago when she made use of her abilities and position to kidnap several Light apprentices, all of whom ended up murdered in a particularly horrific way. The Council might not care much about non-Light apprentices, but that is very definitely not the case when it comes to their own apprentices, and they’d gone after Crystal in a fury. She’d managed to evade capture so far, but she was still on the Council’s most-wanted list and even the off chance of finding her would be enough to get the Keeper orders very interested. “And if investigating that should happen to mean helping Anne . . . ?”