“Well, that’s just the way it goes, isn’t it?”
I gave Caldera a half smile, but it faded quickly. Sonder might have just made that argument to enlist Caldera’s help, but the more I thought about it, the more plausible it sounded. The last in the series of apprentices that Crystal had kidnapped back then had been Anne, and Crystal hadn’t picked her at random—she’d been researching a method of magical immortality, and she’d come to believe that by taking Anne’s life she could extend her own. We’d stopped Crystal before she could complete her ritual . . . but nothing was stopping her from trying again.
Over the last hour my priorities had shifted. Step by step, the evidence for what had happened to Anne had gotten worse and worse, and my earlier worries about coming across as pushy seemed very childish now. If it really had been Crystal, we might already be too late.
Luna looked bleak, and I knew she was thinking the same thing. Caldera seemed less anxious, but in an unpleasant sort of way this was probably something she was used to. The Order of the Star are the ones amongst the Keepers who deal with crimes involving Dark mages; kidnap and murder are old hat as far as they’re concerned. No one broke the silence, and I was left alone with my thoughts, waiting for Sonder to return.
When Sonder came back, the news was bad enough that he didn’t put up even a token protest about me listening in.
Time magic falls into two branches: direct manipulation of the flow of time, such as accelerating or slowing the timestream, and perception of past events. Sonder’s competent at the first, but it’s timesight he’s really good at. By using his magic he can look back into the past of his current location, perceiving what happened at an earlier point in time. He can only see what his ordinary senses would, but it’s still an incredibly powerful tool for investigation. The more recent the event, the easier it is to view, which meant that for Sonder, seeing what had happened last night was very, very simple.
Anne had been kidnapped. Her attackers had gated into the living room, walked into her bedroom as she slept, and hit her with a bolt of lightning before she’d even woken up. There had been two of them, both mages, and Sonder hadn’t been able to identify either. Caldera questioned Sonder meticulously for descriptions, but as they’d both worn ski masks there was little Sonder had been able to see. Both were male, one light-skinned and one dark, but beyond that all he could give were vague guesses as to height and weight. Anne had apparently been knocked out by the second lightning blast, and while one of them went back to recast the gateway the other had heaved her up with a view to dragging her through.
But that was where things had gone wrong.
I hadn’t known everything that Sonder was going to say—conversations are hard to predict, and while you can get a general impression if you concentrate it’s usually easier just to wait for them to tell it to you—but I’d known the news was bad. As he kept talking, though, something made me look up. Sonder was acting as though the news was bad, but there was more. “It was here,” Sonder said, pointing to a spot in the middle of the room. “That one had just opened a gate and he was about to carry Anne through.”
“Then what happened?” Caldera asked.
“There was a green flash and this guy just dropped. He was—”
“Which guy?” Caldera said.
“The one carrying Anne.”
“I thought she wasn’t awake?”
“That was what I thought too,” Sonder said excitedly. “Anyway, he goes down just here and she falls on top of him, but the gate’s still up. I think he must have been using a focus with a safety buffer, because I don’t think he could have kept concentration with—”
“Forget about the focus,” Caldera said. “What happened next?”
“Anne gets up here and the other guy comes out of the bedroom.” Sonder pointed back towards the door. “I think the one on the ground was half stunned, but he hit Anne with another spell, death magic I think—it hurt her but it didn’t stop her. The other one aimed another lightning bolt, but she jumped back through the gateway . . .” Sonder shifted position, squinting as if trying to see something.
“And then?” Caldera prompted.
Sonder stared at her. “It closed.”
“What closed? The gate?”
Sonder nodded uncertainly. “The cutoff must have triggered.”
“So she ended up on the other side of the gate, and the two of them were left back here?”
“Where did the gate go?” Luna asked.
“Hang on a second,” Sonder said, frowning. He shifted position, peering from side to side, while I made myself stay still. I wanted to tell him to hurry up, but I knew that would just make things worse.
“The gate’s black,” Sonder said at last.
“So what, somewhere dark?” Caldera said.
“No, if it were just dark I’d be able to see reflected light from the room. I think it’s masked.”
“No signature?”
“No.”
Caldera frowned, thinking. “So these two were left behind? What did they do?”
According to Sonder they’d started arguing. It had taken them a couple of minutes to finish blaming each other and follow her, reopening the same gate and disappearing through. Caldera started cross-questioning Sonder, picking through their conversation for clues, but my thoughts were elsewhere.
It was still bad news, but at least whoever Anne’s attackers were, they weren’t having it all their own way. They’d underestimated her, and she’d managed to turn the tables on them and get away though the gate . . . but where? If the gate had been masked, then Sonder wouldn’t be able to see where it led, no matter how long he tried. That meant the only clue we had was the people who’d created it. Where would two hostile mages want to take a kidnapped and unconscious life apprentice?
I didn’t know, but I didn’t think it was going to be anywhere pleasant.
Sonder and Caldera were winding down, and Sonder belatedly seemed to realise that I was there. “We need to find her,” he told me. The tone of his voice made it clear that the we wasn’t meant to be inclusive.
“Us as well,” I said.
Sonder hesitated. I knew he was about to object, but that future faded out as he reconsidered. He looked at Caldera.
“I’m not crazy about it,” Caldera said. “But we’re not exactly overstaffed.”
“All right,” Sonder said reluctantly. He braced himself and turned to me. “But I’m in charge, not you. You have to follow my orders.”
I kept my face carefully straight. “Okay.”
Sonder gave me a suspicious look, then Caldera told him she was going to start gathering the materials for a tracer spell and he got distracted. I arranged with Caldera to meet tomorrow and left with Luna before Sonder could change his mind.
“Who were they?” Luna said once we were out of the flat. “Why would they want to go after Anne?”
“Until we get something more concrete, there’s no point guessing. Have you talked to Vari?”
“Yeah, I just got a text. He hasn’t heard from her.”
I grimaced, even though it had been what I was expecting. “She left her phone back there,” Luna said. “Maybe that’s why she hasn’t called?”
“It’s been nearly a full day,” I said. “She should have been able to figure out a way to get in touch . . .” I shook my head. “I want you to find Vari. Tell him everything and make sure he’s there tomorrow. We’re going to need all the help we can get, and he knows Anne better than anyone.”
Luna nodded. “What are you going to do?”