Ji-yeong smiled. “That’s why it’s fun.”
“For you, maybe.” Scanning the futures, I couldn’t sense any immediate aggression. “Mind if I ask you something?”
“Like what?”
“I’ve been kind of getting the feeling that you’re the odd one out in your trio.”
Ji-yeong frowned slightly. “Sorry?”
“Darren’s friends with Sam,” I said. “Sam’s friends with Darren. I don’t think Sam and Darren are friends with you.”
“They’ve always been like that.”
“So I’m curious. Why are you helping them?”
“I knew you’d gone down here,” Ji-yeong said. “I’ve had a lot of time to explore this castle. Darren figured you’d gone south.” Ji-yeong shrugged again. “I haven’t told him yet.”
I noticed the yet. “Why, was there something you wanted to ask?”
“Why does Crystal want that girl?”
“Do you know what Crystal did before she came here?”
Ji-yeong didn’t take the bait, but from her body language I was pretty sure the answer was no. Interesting. “Crystal used to be a Light mage, researching life extension,” I said. “She’s got a ritual that she thinks will give her immortality. She tried to get Anne once, and ever since she’s been hiding. She’s been here what, two months?”
“Three months.”
I nodded. “She can’t set foot in Britain, not safely. So she sent Darren and Sam to do her work for her.”
Ji-yeong tapped her sword hilts thoughtfully. “You know, I’m a bit surprised you don’t know all this,” I said. “Crystal was big news for a while. Don’t you get out much?”
“No,” Ji-yeong said, slight irritation showing on her face. “Sagash hardly ever lets me go out. It’s really annoying.”
“You didn’t get invited to the party?”
“Sagash made me stay and guard the castle.”
“You don’t have a flat in London or something?”
“Sagash won’t get me one.”
“Seems a bit stingy.”
“I know, right? We’re his apprentices, but he’s too cheap to spend any money on us. It’s not as though he’s poor.”
“Darren and Sam seem to have their own places.”
“Oh, they’re not theirs. That flat of Darren’s belongs to his sister. And Sam lives with his parents.”
“What about you—your family back in Korea?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you stay in touch?”
“I call once a week or so. We do video calls on Skype.”
“I guess you can’t really get an Internet connection here.”
“No, I have to gate out to London. It’s a pain, it’d be nice to do it from my room in the keep.”
“Shadow realms are a bit inconvenient that way.”
“I know.”
There was a pause. We looked at each other across the stone.
“So are you going to come along quietly?” Ji-yeong asked.
“I think I’d rather not.”
“I could kill you and drag your body back,” Ji-yeong said brightly.
“That seems like a lot of work. I’m kind of heavy.”
“Oh, two of these shadows can carry a body easily as long as they don’t fly.”
“Okay, leaving aside just how disturbing it is that you know that particular detail, who exactly would you be taking me back to? Crystal or Sagash?”
“Sagash,” Ji-yeong said. “It’s one of our jobs. We’re supposed to stop anyone getting in here without Sagash’s permission.”
“Darren and Sam managed to screw that one up pretty badly.”
“Yup,” Ji-yeong said with a smile. “Telling Sagash is going to be fun!”
“So that’s your plan?” I said. “You take me back to Sagash, tell him what happened, get Crystal and Darren and Sam into trouble and come out looking good?”
“Pretty much,” Ji-yeong agreed. “You coming?”
“How about we do this a different way? The way I see it, Crystal, Darren, and Sam don’t like any of us very much right now. And it doesn’t sound as though you like them that much either.”
“Not really. I only went along with them because I didn’t have anything to do. When Sagash is busy with his research, it gets really boring. You and that girl are the most fun we’ve had for months.”
“So why don’t we work together?” I said. “The only reason I’m here is to find Anne. And you don’t care if she gets out of here, right?”
“Not really,” Ji-yeong said. “But I don’t care if she doesn’t get out of here, either. And if I go back to Sagash on my own, he’s not going to listen because it’ll just be my word against theirs. But if I bring you back then he can question you for proof, and I get the credit.”
“Slight problem with that plan,” I said. “I don’t really think I want to cooperate.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Ji-yeong said. “I watched you fight Sam. You haven’t got anything that can hurt me.”
“You could still—”
“Nope,” Ji-yeong said. Steel rang as she unsheathed her two swords, sunlight glittering off metal. “Done talking. Time for me to kick your arse.”
I sighed. “Well, can’t blame me for trying.”
“Don’t worry,” Ji-yeong said. “I’ll make sure to keep you alive for afterwards.” She spun the swords from a forward to a reverse grip and back again, then advanced. I backed towards the pillars as she drew closer.
Ji-yeong was slim and fit. She wasn’t obviously muscular, but I could see the life magic woven through her body, reinforcing and strengthening. I know life magic can be used for enhancement, but I’ve never seen it used much—Anne can do it, but only the basics. For Ji-yeong, enhancement seemed to be her specialty. The spells were densely woven, complex and hard to read, but they looked like direct boosts to her physical abilities. Not only was she fitter than me, she was probably stronger and faster too.
But no matter how strong or fast, she was still an apprentice. If Ji-yeong was better than Anne with that kind of life magic, she had to be worse with others. Her two swords were less than two feet long, on the borderline between sword and knife. I was fairly sure they were focuses of some kind, but the fact that she’d drawn them suggested that she couldn’t paralyse or kill with a touch the way Anne could.
Ji-yeong caught up with me when I was still a few feet from the pillars. I stopped retreating and stood side-on, my hands low. Ji-yeong made an experimental cut at my wrist and I twitched it away; she tried twice more for face and arm and each time I swayed just out of range. The next thrust was a feint; she stepped through and spun low, whirling through a full circle to slash with the other sword at ankle height. I jumped back, retreating into the cover of the pillars.
Ji-yeong came up gracefully. “Not even going to try?”
“I think I might be a little overmatched,” I said dryly.
“Boring,” Ji-yeong said, making a face. “Thought you were going to make this fun.”
My divination was my only warning. The right sword missed my face by about three inches, and I leapt back as the other cut the air where my arm had been. Before I had the chance to catch my balance Ji-yeong was on me again, moving at full speed this time. She was stronger than me, and frighteningly quick. Her swords were a blur of metal.
But while Ji-yeong was fast, she wasn’t that good, something I’d already suspected from her choice of weapons. Wielding two swords at once looks good in the movies but doesn’t work too well in practice—it isn’t really possible to strike effectively with both sides of your body at once, and the human brain isn’t wired to operate both hands simultaneously and independently. There are a few niche cases where it can work, but most of the time you’re better off learning to use one weapon well instead of weighing yourself down with two. Ji-yeong didn’t look like she’d spent much time learning to use her swords at all. Her attacks were showy and inefficient, much of her speed wasted on unnecessary motion.
I backed away, ducking and slipping the attacks as Ji-yeong pressed me. Her movements were a blur, but I could see her strikes coming and they hit nothing but air. Surprise showed on her face, then concentration. I kept giving ground, dodging between the pillars to interfere with her swings. The more I watched the way she moved, the more sure I became that she didn’t have much experience against skilled opponents.