“I’ve been talking to the apprentices,” Luna said into my ear. “Most of them are talking about Morden and that proposal—you know, Dark mages and the Council—but I found out something else. Sagash has apprentices, and they’re here.”
“Good,” I said quietly. Beneath me, I saw Meredith appear from the direction of the stairs and move towards Morden’s little crowd. Caldera and Sonder entered where she’d left, disappearing from my view.
“I think I can find them. I can go after them, or I could try Morden’s—”
“Go after the apprentices. I’ll deal with Morden.”
“Got it.”
From behind me I heard footsteps and I knew Caldera and Sonder were at my back. I stayed facing away, leaning on the balcony rail and tracking them in my future sight. Only after they’d passed by did I turn my head slightly to look. The two of them were moving around the semicircular balcony, heading for the room at the far end. Jagadev would be within.
I was torn. I badly wanted to talk to Sagash: I hadn’t spotted him yet, but if his apprentices were here he probably was too. On the other hand, looking for him meant leaving Sonder and Caldera on their own, and I could already see two or three Dark mages drifting after them. Caldera should be able to take care of herself, but I wasn’t so sure about Sonder . . .
Sonder and Caldera vanished behind a pillar and I shook my head and turned away. They were adults; they’d have to handle themselves. The only place I hadn’t checked yet was the far side of the balcony, and I headed along it. Down on the club floor I could see that Meredith was talking to one of the mages around Morden. I needed to hurry.
Sagash was at the very end of the balcony, and he was alone. None of the other mages had approached him, and even from a distance I could see why. Being a Dark mage comes with a certain automatic intimidation factor—you don’t get far in Dark society without being ruthless, and even the ones who haven’t reached their current position over a pile of bodies are not to be messed with—but still, most of them practise a certain minimum level of subtlety. Fear is useful, but sometimes you just want to blend in.
Apparently Sagash was of the opinion that blending in was for wimps.
He was taller than me, and skeletally thin. The flesh of his hands and neck was withered, stretched tight over clearly visible tendons and bones, and the fingers grasping the balcony railing looked like claws. His lips were pulled slightly back over his mouth, showing his teeth in an endless mirthless grin, and his skin was yellowed and pale. A black cap covered his skull, and dark robes hung from his bony shoulders. He looked like a cross between a famine survivor and an animated skeleton, but his thin limbs gave no impression of weakness; there was a kind of unnatural immobility about him, coiled and ready for action. I’m not going to say he was the most terrifying-looking human being I’ve ever seen, but I’d have trouble coming up with a better candidate on short notice.
I swallowed quietly. Well, you’re always telling Luna not to judge by appearances, right?
Sagash turned to face me as I approached, and it was just as well I’d had advance warning or I would have flinched. Up close his face looked even worse; the flesh was stretched over the skull, and pinpoints of yellow light glowed from sunken eye sockets. “Sagash,” I said. I managed to keep my voice steady, but it was a near thing. “I’m glad I caught you.” Let’s not get into the question of who’s caught whom . . .
Sagash stared at me. I’d thought of a dozen lies and half truths, but as I looked into his eyes I abandoned them all. There was something inhuman about Sagash, and my instincts told me that the tricks which had worked on Meredith and Ordith wouldn’t work on him. “I wonder if you might be able to help me,” I said. “I’m interested in the whereabouts of an apprentice called Anne Walker.”
Sagash studied me for a moment before speaking. His voice had a grating, rasping sound, like a piece of sandpaper working on a particularly stubborn lump of wood. “You are misinformed.”
“I was under the impression she used to be your apprentice?”
“No longer.” Sagash still hadn’t asked my name. I suspected he didn’t care.
“But I assume you keep tabs on her.”
“I neither know her present status, nor care.”
“Ah, my mistake,” I said. “My apologies. You don’t make any claim on her, then?”
Sagash’s yellow-pinpoint eyes focused on me and I had to force myself to hold my ground. “Your activities are not my concern,” he rasped. “The girl’s life is of no interest to me. Do with her as you wish.” He turned to face me, one bony hand hanging at his side; he held no weapon, but the threat was clear. “You have your answer. Leave.”
I looked—very quickly—at the consequences of staying, then bowed slightly and withdrew. Sagash watched me go, then turned back to overlook the club floor. As I turned away there was a chime in my ear and I heard Luna’s voice again. “Found them.”
“The apprentices?” I said very quietly. There were people close enough to overhear.
“They’re in the far corner. Listen, I’m going to try something. Back in a sec.”
“Wait, what are you—” The communicator cut off, and I swore under my breath. What did she mean, “try something”?
Looking into the futures, I could sense something happening around the entrance to Jagadev’s throne room, and I changed direction to head towards it. As I did I ran over what Sagash had told me. Now that it was too late, I wished I’d questioned Anne more thoroughly about her time with him; it would have made it a lot easier to figure out whether Sagash was lying. My divination magic hadn’t been much use—if someone isn’t going to tell you something, then looking into the futures of questioning them won’t help. He might be lying . . . but why? If it really had been Sagash who’d been behind Anne’s disappearance, he hadn’t broken any laws. What did he have to gain from hiding it?
The far right end of the balcony terminated in a wide doorway. Some of Jagadev’s men had been stationed outside, but I couldn’t see any trace of Jagadev himself; he must be in the rooms beyond. I couldn’t see Caldera but I could see Sonder; he’d been approached by a girl in her twenties and was talking to her. “Caldera,” I murmured, letting a pillar conceal me. “Where are you?”
There was a pause before Caldera answered, and when she did her voice was muffled. “Not a good time.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Jagadev let you in to see him but he’s keeping you waiting, and he made Sonder wait outside?”
“Yeah.”
“Know if you’ll be done soon? It’s just that Sonder—”
“Look, whatever this is, take care of it on your own, all right? Kind of busy here.”
“No problem,” I said. “Alex out.” I walked out from behind the pillar and towards where Sonder was standing.
After you’ve spent a while in certain types of environments you get a nose for trouble. I didn’t know the girl Sonder was talking to, and I didn’t know the boy hanging back in the shadows, but I recognised the way they were standing and that was all I needed to be sure about what was going to happen. In the time I’d been talking to Caldera, Sonder had been drawn a few steps away from the entrance to Jagadev’s throne room, and he looked on the point of following the girl. “Please?” she was saying. “There’s no one else I can ask.”
“How far is he?” Sonder asked. He was hesitating, but I knew he was close to being convinced.
“Just in the next room,” the girl said. She was petite and wiry, with a birdlike way of moving, and she looked very appealing as she gazed up at Sonder. “Isn’t there anything you can do? I don’t have much, but if there’s anything I can offer you, I—”