I bowed slightly. ‘Thank you for seeing me.’
The dragon looked at me without answering.
‘Is there something I should call you?’ I asked. ‘Because we were never exactly introduced.’
The dragon spoke, its voice clear and musical. ‘You have three questions.’
Right, I thought. Not one for small talk. I chose my words carefully. ‘How can I break Anne free of the jinn’s influence?’
‘You cannot.’
I waited for the dragon to continue. It didn’t. ‘Is—?’ I began, then stopped myself. I’d been about to ask, ‘Is that it?’ ‘That is … not as helpful an answer as I was expecting.’
The dragon watched me.
Okay, let’s try adding more context. ‘I’ve been told that to live, I have to turn Rachel against Richard,’ I said. ‘How can I accomplish that?’
‘You must convince her of the truth of her fears.’
What fears? About the only emotions I ever saw from Rachel these days were anger and contempt. If she was afraid of anything, I didn’t know what it was. ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Then please answer me this, as well as you can. How can I become powerful enough to protect the people I care about and stay alive?’
‘You cannot.’
‘What?’
The dragon looked at me.
‘What am I supposed to do about any of those answers?’
‘That is your decision to make.’
‘No,’ I said. Frustration pushed out my lingering fear and I walked forward, coming to a stop in front of the dragon. ‘This is useless. You said you’d answer three questions. Answer them in a way I can understand!’
‘You are a child looking through a keyhole.’ Grey eyes looked steadily into mine. ‘I may show you the other side, but I can neither bring you the key nor turn it. In the past you have rendered service to Arachne, and it is for this reason that you are here. Should you wish it, I will answer more fully. But be warned: in looking at your paths, you will change them. There is no turning back.’
‘Then let’s hear it.’
‘The jinn’s influence on your companion is due to the link between them. It was established at their first contact and is a function of the jinn’s own power, which is far beyond yours. If you attempt to sever the link, it will destroy you. Rachel does not fear you as you are now, but she fears what you might become. Yet mad and broken as she is, she sees you more clearly than you see yourself. The next time you meet, do not talk; listen. Until you understand the ways in which the two of you are alike, any attempt you make to alter Rachel’s path will fail. Finally, you do not possess the capacity to amass sufficient power to protect your friends and to stay alive; only one of the two.’
A chill went through me. ‘What do you mean?’ But even as I said it, I knew the answer.
‘There are many paths for you to increase your abilities, but only one that will enable them to reach their fullest potentiaclass="underline" that which you already wielded and abandoned. Yet even should you win the battle of minds, the power within is too great for your body to long sustain. You will burn like a candle, bright but short-lived.’
I stared back at the dragon. ‘Or I could run away,’ I said. ‘That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it? I could gain enough power to stay alive, but not if I want to protect everyone else.’
‘Yes.’
I looked away. ‘If I take that path,’ I said after a moment, ‘then who?’
‘Do you really want to know?’
‘No.’ I paused, looked back at the dragon. ‘Yes. I mean, I already know. It’s Anne, isn’t it?’
‘Anne and Variam,’ the dragon said. ‘Luna’s fate lies along another path.’
I looked away again, out over the island. Stars in a void formed bright pinpoints above the rugged stone. ‘So that’s the choice I’m going to get,’ I said quietly.
‘No,’ the dragon said. ‘It is the choice you would have had.’ It nodded to me. ‘Go.’
I looked back at the dragon. Now that I was close, I could see its eyes; they were cloudy and opaque. Something tugged at me, urging me to look into them; with an effort of will I averted my gaze, then turned and walked away. The dragon said nothing, and when I turned back to look after fifty paces, the woman and the chair were gone.
10
It was a week later.
The communicator went ping, signalling an incoming call. It was windy up on the hillside, and the sound was lost in the background noise, but I’d already seen the message coming and stopped what I was doing, walking over to my pack. Anne watched as I towelled my neck and arms before pulling out the focus. ‘Verus.’
‘This is Talisid.’ Talisid’s voice was hard to hear over the sound of the wind in the leaves, and I had to hold the communicator close to my ear. ‘We’ve had the signal from Onyx. We’re on.’
‘When and where?’
‘Friday evening. At the Tiger’s Palace.’
Wonderful. ‘When do you need me in?’
‘The Senior Council is meeting this afternoon, and the Keepers are finalising plans. They’re closed meetings, but make sure you’re available in case you’re needed.’
‘… Okay.’
‘I’ll be in touch.’ The light on the communicator winked out.
Anne walked over. ‘“In case you’re needed”?’
I sighed and tossed the communicator back into my bag. ‘It means that now they’ve made the deal, they don’t need me any more. Knowing the Council, they won’t tell us anything about what the plan’s going to be or what we’ll need, but they’ll still expect us to make ourselves available.’
‘So not much point rushing.’
‘Nope. Back to work.’
We were in Wales, in a little valley hidden by the curve of two hills. It was a quiet and deserted spot, which was why I’d picked it for hand-to-hand practice. Anne had asked me to teach her a year or so back, and I’d agreed, even though it had struck me as a weird request. Like all life mages, Anne is basically unbeatable in hand-to-hand – her touch can inflict anything from healing to paralysis to death, and unless you’re a life or a death mage, there’s no way to stop it. But when I’d made that argument to Anne, she’d pointed out that she’d more than once ended up in close quarters with things that her magic didn’t work against, due to them not being alive. In any case, she’d spent more than enough of her own time helping me out with my own physical training, so I’d gone along with it.
I went back and picked up the pads, slipping them onto my hands. The earth and grass were soft enough that we had no need for a mat. ‘Left, then right,’ I told Anne.
Anne sighed but obeyed. The combination was a basic one: left jab, right straight. Anne steadied herself, then hit. One-two, one-two.
‘Don’t drop your guard,’ I said after the fortieth hit.
‘I know,’ Anne said. She kept her hands up for the next ten combinations, then started to let them droop. When she went in for number sixty-three, I reached out and tapped her on the forehead. Anne flinched and stepped back.
‘I shouldn’t be able to do that,’ I told her.
Anne dropped her hands and stepped back. ‘I’m getting tired.’
‘I thought life mages didn’t get tired.’
‘Just because I can mute those receptors doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,’ Anne said. ‘How many of these do you want me to do?’
‘A few thousand.’
‘Seriously?’
‘That’s how many repetitions it takes for something to sink into muscle memory.’
‘Aren’t we ever going to do more than just punches?’
‘What were you expecting, high kicks?’