“So I don’t know if you remember, but we’ve met before,” I said. “It was—”
“In the Tiger’s Palace.” Sagash didn’t bring up the changes I’d made to my appearance. Fashion clearly wasn’t one of his interests.
“Oh good. So I don’t need to go over that again.”
“You approached me for information on Anne Walker,” Sagash rasped. “If you have disturbed me to repeat the same question I will be unhappy.”
“Actually, what I had in mind was the opposite. I have some information I’d like to trade.”
“Explain.”
“Basically it has to do with the project you’re working on. There’s a plot against you that I’ve found out about. In exchange, I’d like you to help me out with what I asked you about before.”
“What plot?” Sagash rasped. He didn’t move, but I knew I had his attention. When you’re dealing with paranoids, a conspiracy is an easy sell.
“So have we got a deal?”
“You are trying my patience.”
“I’m not asking you to do anything that’ll require any expenditure of time or resources on your part,” I said. “Or that’ll require siding with any factions. You won’t even have to leave this shadow realm. All I’m asking is that after you’ve heard what I have to say, if you agree that what I’ve just said is fair, you’ll help me out.”
Sagash stared at me. I waited, hiding my tension. I didn’t know how much time I had, and with my conversation with Sagash occupying all the visible futures I couldn’t look far enough ahead to see. I listened for the sound of movement in the corridor behind.
“Your terms are provisionally accepted,” Sagash rasped. “Convince me I should keep them.”
First step done. “Well, then,” I said. “I’m afraid you’ve been led down a dead end. The research you’ve been working on isn’t going to be any use for extending your life span, or anything else for that matter.”
“Your reasons for this conclusion?”
“Let me take a guess,” I said. “You’ve been extra busy lately. In fact, I’d guess that the only spare time you’ve taken has been to visit that party. I’m also going to guess that the reason the research has been taking so much time has been because of Crystal. Either some extra details she just recently told you about, or something she suggested you do.”
“You are well informed,” Sagash rasped. “Please explain how you came to know of Crystal’s presence.”
“Oh, I wasn’t looking for her. Though the Council are . . . which I assume is why you haven’t been advertising it. I’m guessing the idea is that no one’s supposed to draw attention to her being here? Having a bunch of Council Keepers banging on the front door would be a bit of a disruption.”
“It appears disruption is inevitable. Once again, explain how you came to know of this.”
Sagash hadn’t closed the door behind me, and from down the corridor I was starting to hear snatches of voices. Both Crystal and Darren could sense me through walls; they’d probably started hunting me down within seconds of my entering the keep. Let’s see if I can time this just right. “Because someone in your castle decided to kidnap Anne Walker and bring her here, all while keeping it a secret from you so that you’d be left to deal with the consequences afterwards.”
“Who?”
I paused a few seconds, listening to the approaching footsteps. Three . . . two . . . “Her,” I said, and pointed towards the doorway just as Crystal appeared.
I had to give Crystal credit. The shielding around Sagash’s lab had hidden me from her mindsight, but as she saw me she didn’t even blink. Darren and Sam piled through after her and I stayed calm, watching with folded arms. Darren and Sam saw me and tensed, Darren’s expression darkening as black light gathered at his hands.
“Hold.” Sagash’s rasping voice cut across the room.
Darren’s spell winked out instantly. Sam looked cautiously between Sagash and me. “Master,” he said. “Is there a problem?”
“An excellent question,” Sagash rasped. “I was under the impression that you were keeping my castle free of outsiders.”
“Sorry, they’ve been busy,” I chipped in. “They’re the reason Anne was in this castle in the first place, and they’ve been spending the last few days trying to catch her without you noticing.”
An identical pair of oh shit expressions crossed Darren’s and Sam’s faces. They’d obviously been expecting me to blast my way into the keep and attack—they hadn’t been expecting me to go to their master, and it was clear which they thought was worse. I saw a new set of futures branch off, Crystal backing off towards the door, and I opened my mouth to call her out.
Sagash beat me to it. Two shadows appeared in the doorway, blocking the exit, and the futures of Crystal retreating winked out. “Mage Crystal?” Sagash rasped. He hadn’t given any order that I’d seen, but the two shadows had their eyes fixed on the mind mage. “If you’re not too busy, perhaps you could clarify.”
Crystal paused, and for a fraction of a second I saw a branching spread of futures of sudden violence, Crystal trying to fight her way out through the shadows, Darren and Sam switching suddenly from attacking to helping—
—and gone. “That mage’s name is Verus,” Crystal stated. “One of the agents the Council sent after me to terminate my research. He’s a diviner, and highly dangerous. We should kill him immediately.”
“That would keep me from telling Sagash what you’ve been up to, yes,” I said dryly. “Assuming you could pull it off. Did you interrupt your ritual on Anne to run up here, or did I make it before you had the chance to start?”
“He’s lying,” Crystal said calmly to Sagash. She didn’t look at me or acknowledge my presence. “I’ve dealt with this man before and he is a highly accomplished manipulator. Trust him or let him live and you’ll be destroyed as Vitus was.”
“I hope you haven’t been using her as your social secretary,” I told Sagash.
“You need to—”
“Enough,” Sagash rasped.
Crystal and I fell silent. Darren and Sam were standing between us, hesitating. They might have taken the lead in the fight at the windmill, but here they were both very obviously out of their league.
Sagash pointed a skeletal finger at me. “You claimed my apprentices are the reason this girl is currently within my castle.”
“Darren and Sam kidnapped Anne Walker four days ago,” I said. “Though really, they were just doing what they were told. The one who wanted Anne was Crystal, and she used mind manipulation to manoeuvre Darren and Sam into doing what she told them and thinking it was their own idea.”
Sagash looked at Darren and Sam.
Darren hesitated. “Uh . . .”
“That’s not exactly . . .” Sam began.
Huh, I thought. Guess that last part was actually true. I didn’t have any proof that Crystal had used her magic to manipulate the two of them—I’d just thrown it in because there was absolutely no way Crystal could prove she hadn’t done it.
“Perhaps I should make my questions simpler,” Sagash rasped. “Is Anne Walker currently within my castle? Yes or no will suffice.”
“Uh . . .” Sam said. “Yes.”
“Where?” Sagash said.
“In the holding cells.”
“Why?”
“Uh . . . do you mean why did we put her there, or why she’s in the castle . . . ?”
Sagash looked at him. “Right,” Sam said hurriedly. “So, well, Crystal said that you needed this girl for your project, so we had to bring her in alive. Then, uh, we had to catch her again. Which we did.” Sam looked from Crystal to Sagash. “Right?”
Sagash stared back at Sam for a moment, then turned to Crystal.
“I’ve been concerned for some time about our progress,” Crystal said, just as though Sagash had asked the question. She sounded much calmer than she had any right to be. “The replication issues have been making me suspect that we need a particular type of live subject. The girl in question has some traits which make her particularly suitable. Since it wasn’t practical for me to go myself, I asked Darren and Sam for their help.”