I didn’t say anything.
‘You know what else I think?’ Rachel said. ‘I think if she isn’t doing her job, it doesn’t matter that much if she’s alive.’
My divination gave me just enough warning. As the green ray stabbed out from Rachel’s hand, I shoved Meredith left while using the momentum to push myself right. The ray passed between us as I grabbed Luna’s hand and the two of us went over the balcony railing.
Air rushed past and my stomach dropped. Shouts and screams sounded from below. I broke my life ring just in time and air magic caught us, slowing our rate of fall. For one heart-stopping moment I thought that we were too heavy, that the ring didn’t have enough power for two, then we slowed just in time and hit the floor in the centre of a circle of scattering people.
Luna and I scrambled to our feet. Looking upwards, I saw Rachel’s white face glaring down at us from the balcony. Meredith was nowhere to be seen. ‘Okay, interesting conversational strategy,’ Luna said, pulling stray strands of mist off me from our fall. ‘Did it work?’
‘We’re alive, aren’t we?’ I muttered. Rachel wasn’t firing on us yet; maybe even she wasn’t willing to shoot into a crowd.
‘I guess,’ Luna said. ‘But Alex? Wasn’t the plan not to be in the middle of the crowd when it turned nasty?’
I looked around to see that the entire crowd of adepts was staring at us. We’d even attracted enough attention to distract them from Richard. And as I thought about Richard, I looked up to see him staring down right at us.
Variam’s voice spoke into my ear. ‘Fire in the hole.’
Richard met my gaze, and even at a distance, I saw him smile.
The main doors burst open with a thundering boom. Turning, I saw Council security and mages in combat gear come pouring through the doorway. Shouts and screams came from the crowd of adepts, people trying to push away from the Council security and finding nowhere to go. We had the Keeper force on one side, Richard’s cabal on the other, and a crowd of panicking adepts all around us.
‘You know,’ I told Luna, ‘this is turning into a really crappy night out.’
The Council security formed a line, a long semicircle of grim-faced men holding sub-machine-guns levelled at the crowd, and behind them came the Keepers, surrounded by glowing shields of red and white and blue. Yells rang out as the adepts backed away. The Keeper ranks parted and a man stepped forward.
12
The man leading the Keepers had thinning hair and a steady stride, and a translucent shield of air magic shimmered around him. I’d seen him before in the War Rooms: this was Nimbus, the Director of Operations for the Order of the Star. ‘Mage Drakh,’ he called out. He didn’t raise his voice, but his words echoed like thunder across the room. ‘You are under arrest on suspicion of violation of the first and second clauses of the Concord. You will order your followers to stand down and come with us.’
Richard stood in plain view on the balcony, looking down at the Council force. If he was worried, he wasn’t showing any sign of it. ‘You would start a battle in the middle of an innocent crowd?’ Like Nimbus, Richard’s voice rang out across the club floor. ‘Is this Council policy nowadays?’
‘The only one intending to start a battle is you,’ Nimbus said. ‘Cooperate, and no one will be harmed.’
A barely perceptible ripple went through the crowd. I looked around for a way out. We weren’t that far from the doors, but there were a lot of people in the way.
‘Thank you for the invitation,’ Richard said. ‘I respectfully decline.’
‘Don’t play games, Drakh.’ Nimbus’s voice was hard. ‘This building is surrounded and your cabal is outnumbered. You are not fighting your way out of here.’
Alex! It was Anne’s voice. We’ve got trouble.
Thanks, Anne, I noticed. At least Rachel wasn’t eyeballing us from the balcony any more.
‘Fighting our way out?’ Richard’s voice was calm. ‘You should worry about yourself.’
Figures stepped up behind Richard on the balcony. Rachel was there on Richard’s left side, with Cinder flanking her. There were other mages too, most of them masked, destructive spells crackling around them. On Richard’s right, though, was a shape I didn’t recognise. It looked like a woman, taller than Richard, but shaped out of living darkness.
Vihaela’s aura just changed, Anne said. Got a lot less human and a LOT more powerful.
Yeah, I think I’m looking at her, I said. That black shape didn’t have a face, but with Richard standing right next to it I could judge its size, and it was Vihaela’s height. What’s she doing?
I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s dangerous. Don’t get close!
‘Last chance, Drakh,’ Nimbus said. ‘Are we doing this the easy way, or the hard way?’
The flow of reinforcements through the door hadn’t stopped, and more and more Keepers were lining up on either side of Nimbus. I saw Caldera, standing close to Nimbus’s right side, along with Rain. Slate and Trask were there too, and I caught a glimpse of Variam’s turban, meaning that Landis was there as well. There had to be at least thirty Keepers there, and those were just the ones that I could see. The crowd around us was shifting, worried. There was the occasional angry shout or call, but for the most part the adepts packed onto the club floor felt scared. That double line of Council security with levelled guns looked menacing as hell, and the Keepers behind them were even worse. If a fight started the crowd would want to run …
… but run where? The Keepers were blocking the exit. I looked around, craning my neck, and felt a chill. At the far end of the room, I could just see the stairs leading up to the balcony, the ones that had been guarded when Luna and I had been looking for a way up. They weren’t guarded now; instead they were blocked off by heavy metal grates. ‘Verus to Nimbus.’
‘The easy way would be for you to take your men and leave,’ Richard said calmly. ‘But we already know you’re not going to do that.’
‘Hard way it is,’ Nimbus said.
‘Verus to Nimbus,’ I said again. There was no answering chime and I swore. They must be on a different circuit. I could figure out how to get through, with enough time—
Magic glowed around Nimbus and he soared up into the air. ‘This gathering is at an end.’ His voice boomed out around the room. ‘All of you will lie down on the floor and—’
The shape next to Richard raised an arm. Black lightning flashed, tearing through Nimbus’s shield and slamming him against the wall. Nimbus’s head hit the concrete with an audible crack and he dropped from sight.
He hadn’t even hit the ground before everyone opened fire.
Spells flashed out from both sides, fireballs and force blades and bolts of lightning crossing in mid-air. They impacted on shields with a crash, energy flaring in all directions. Screams and shouts came from the adepts, and the second line of security men threw a volley of grenades into the crowd. I had just enough time to push Luna down and shut my eyes before they went off with a sound like the end of the world, blotting out my hearing and knocking me flat.
I struggled back to my feet. Spots flashed before my eyes, and all I could hear was a high-pitched ringing. All around, the crowd was in chaos, people’s mouths opening and closing silently. A warning from my precognition made me twist aside just as a group of adepts charged past.