“I guess.”
Caldera swore under her breath and got to her feet. “Find out what happened at the station. Fast. I need to call this in.” She disappeared downstairs again.
I frowned after her. What was that about? “So you took the green marble to Pudding Mill Lane,” I said to Leo. “And you met that man there.”
Nod.
“Were you supposed to give it to him?”
“I guess.”
“You were supposed to give it to him, if . . . ?”
“If he said the right thing.”
Code phrase, I thought. Leo was getting uncomfortable again. The subject he didn’t want to talk about seemed to be the person who’d sent him to the station. I was getting the strong feeling that was who he was scared of. “What happened at the station?”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“We know it’s not your fault.”
“They’ll say it was.” I realised suddenly that Leo was trembling. He wasn’t scared—he was terrified. “I was supposed to give it to the man in the suit.”
I tried different lines of questioning. Not that one, not that one . . . ah. “But someone else came,” I said. “A man with a beard, wearing sunglasses.”
Leo nodded.
“And there was a fight, so you ran away.”
“It wasn’t my fault.”
“I know.” So Leo had been there to meet the mage at the station when Chamois had attacked. “Did you see anyone get hurt?”
Leo shook his head. He’s leaving something out . . . “There was something you were supposed to do,” I said. “Wasn’t there?”
Leo nodded.
Say something? No. Take something? “Was the man in the suit supposed to give you something, too?”
“I was supposed to take it back,” Leo said. He’d started trembling again.
“It’s not your fault,” I said again. “You did what you could.”
“He was supposed to give me another one back,” Leo said. He hunched up defensively. “She’s going to be . . .”
“She’s going to be what?” I kept my voice calm. I was right on the edge of getting him to talk. I tried out different routes through the futures, probing delicately. I just needed to find the right thing to say.
There was a clumping from the stairs and Caldera appeared again. “We might have to move him.”
I didn’t take my eyes off Leo. “Can this wait a sec?”
“Leo,” Caldera said. “Who sent you to Pudding Mill Lane? Can you tell us?”
Leo looked back at Caldera with wide eyes and hunched over on the bed. All the futures in which he spoke to us vanished.
I sighed and got up. “Let’s talk outside.”
We went back into the hall. “Wrong question to ask,” I said once we were out of earshot.
“Priorities just changed,” Caldera said. “That guy in the picture? That was Rayfield.”
“Who?”
“You remember the guy Haken and the others were looking for? Nirvathis’s apprentice? That guy.” Caldera shook her head. “This is getting too big too fast. I’m trying to get the station but I can’t raise them. If the guys don’t show up we might have to take him there ourselves.”
“If they’re coming here we— Wait. You can’t raise them?”
“Com disc’s dead.”
I frowned. “Just now?”
“What did you manage to get out of him?”
“Leo? Uh . . . yeah, he saw Chamois. That was why he ran . . .” Something was bugging me. “Wait. Your communicator focus isn’t working?”
“Yeah, let me try it again.” Caldera pulled out a serrated blue-purple disc and focused on it. The design was similar to mine, though slightly more streamlined.
I waited. Thirty seconds went by, a minute. “Anything?”
“Worthless piece of crap,” Caldera muttered. “‘Work every time,’ my arse. We could just use radios but no, they’re not secure enough . . .”
Something was nagging at me. “Those things have a locator beacon, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You activated it?”
“Yes,” Caldera said shortly.
“Should they be here by now?”
“Yes.” Caldera shot me an annoyed glance. “I’m going to try out back. Wards must be screwing with the signal.” She started down the steps.
I frowned, watching her go down. I’m not an expert on defensive wards, but I’d had a close look at the ones on this house, and as far as I could tell they were low-power and basic. They shouldn’t block communication—definitely not something as advanced as a synchronous focus. Anyway, hadn’t Caldera used that same focus to call for backup just a little while ago? Why should the wards suddenly start blocking it now?
Something was wrong. Caldera was heading for the back door. I looked ahead, searching for danger.
And froze. Something was about to . . .
. . . oh, shit.
“Caldera!” I shouted down the stairs. “Get up here NOW!” Then I ran for the bedroom.
Leo looked up as I burst in, then as I reached for him he flinched and shielded his head. I grabbed his wrist and hauled him off the bed before pulling the wardrobe door open and shoving Leo inside. Coat hangers bounced off his forehead but he was small enough to duck under the clothes rail and I slammed the door, shutting him inside.
The window burst inward in a spray of glass and something sleek and deadly hit the bed right where Leo had been sitting. Its momentum sent it to the floor, and as it landed it turned its head towards me.
Chapter 7
The thing in the room with me was dark grey, four-legged, and fast. I had a fleeting impression of a low-slung body and glowing blue eyes, then it lunged. I dodged, kicked; the thing lurched away but seemed to twist in midair and was on me again in a blink. For a few crazy moments everything was a blur of motion, claws and teeth and icy cold. A paw raked for my face, I blocked and hit the thing in the belly, then it was slamming into me, sending me staggering against the wall. It snapped at me, wispy blue light trailing from its fangs; I scrabbled for its neck, got a grip, tried to force it back. It strained against me, trying to reach my skin with its teeth, and it was hellishly strong. Empty glowing eyes stared into mine as it bit at me again and again. Cold was sinking down my fingers and into my joints, numbing my hands, and I tried frantically to push it away—
A big hand shot down across my field of vision and pulled the thing off me. I looked up to see Caldera holding the thing up one-handed. It struggled and Caldera smashed it into the door frame, once, twice, three times, the door frame splintering and breaking, then she slammed it to the floor, drew back her other hand, and hit it with a downward blow. There was a crack and the thing went still.
All of a sudden the house was silent again. The whole fight had been over in seconds. “You all right?” Caldera asked.
“I think I need new pants.” I scrambled to my feet. “Thanks. What was it?”
“Icecat. There any more?”
I took a breath, heart pounding, and looked ahead. The creature was lying on the floor, still and dead. It was cat-shaped, the size of a leopard or jaguar, but now that I could see it more closely, I could tell it was a construct. The eyes were lifeless now, the spell that had powered it broken. “At least one out the back. Maybe more.”
Caldera opened the wardrobe door to reveal Leo huddled in the corner. “We’re leaving,” she told him. “Stay close.” She pulled him out.
Leo’s eyes lit on the body of the icecat and his face went pale. “Oh God.”
“Just stay with me.” Caldera dragged Leo downstairs.
The fight with the icecat had been so fast that I hadn’t had the chance to draw a weapon. I pulled out my phone and started typing, trying to search through the futures at the same time. Danger flickered through the possibilities, getting closer. I hit Send, shoved the phone back into my pocket, and followed Caldera.