“Why?”
“She was turning the Council against White Rose,” I said. Now that I had a bit of distance, I could recognise the tactic. Take two of your enemies and set them against each other. I’d used the same trick plenty of times myself but this was my first time on the receiving end. It was a new experience for me and I was discovering I didn’t like it very much. Maybe this was how it had felt for some of the people I’d gone up against. “Remember the rumour that the data focuses could be cracked? The only thing stopping the Council from moving against White Rose was the information they were holding. Once enough mages on the Council believed that all that blackmail material White Rose was holding on to was going to get out anyway . . . well, that was it. Kidnapping Haken just sped things up.”
“So Vihaela wouldn’t have cared about getting the focus back at all.”
I nodded. “She knew it couldn’t be cracked. As long as it was out there, lost, it was doing its job. She hardly had to do anything, really. Once things were set in motion, she just had to wait for the Keepers to figure out what was going on and move against White Rose themselves. Levistus was the one trying to put on the brakes.”
“So what are you going to do with that focus?”
“Keep it as a souvenir, I guess. Not like anyone can read the thing.”
“Levistus could.” Luna thought for a second. “He was the one behind that attack on you and Caldera, wasn’t he?”
“Either him or someone on his team. I think they were hoping that by disappearing Leo they could dead-end the case. If Leo hadn’t talked before they snatched him, it might have worked.”
“What do you think happened to him?”
“You mean once they finished ripping everything he knew out of his skull?” I shook my head. I knew there was no way Levistus would have let him live.
Luna was silent, and I found myself thinking about Leo. He’d been abused by White Rose, used as a slave and as a disposable messenger. And then when he’d fallen into the hands of Light mages, the people who were supposed to be his protectors, they’d abducted, interrogated, and finally executed him. It was a miserable end to what had probably been a miserable life, and to a certain extent, it had happened because of me—it had been Caldera and me who’d inadvertently led Levistus’s agents to where Leo was hiding.
I hated that things worked like this. I hated that children like Leo and that nameless slave of Vihaela’s could be casually murdered, while the rulers slept easy at night, protected and safe. Sometimes a mid-level mage like Marannis would fall, but for the most part the ones who paid the heaviest price always seemed to be the ones who had the least to lose.
“It doesn’t feel like we won,” Luna said.
Luna and I think alike in some ways. “White Rose is gone,” I said. “Maybe Leo didn’t get to see the benefit of that, but the other slaves did.”
“This . . .” Luna took a breath. “This wasn’t all because of me, was it? I mean, I was the one who talked you into joining the Keepers, wasn’t I? Everyone who was killed in that battle . . .”
“No,” I said. “This fight was going to happen, one way or another. If it hadn’t happened this way, it would have happened somewhere else.”
Luna nodded. I could tell that it was still bothering her though, and I had the feeling that might be a good thing. In a few more years, if everything went to plan, Luna would pass her journeyman tests and become accepted as a mage. She was going to have to get used to her actions having consequences, even for people she didn’t meet.
“So who was Vihaela really working for?” Luna said.
“The Keepers don’t know, and neither does the Council,” I said. “But we can take a guess. Levistus has been weakened, his puppet candidate for the Council seat is gone, and the status quo’s in chaos. Who’s the one person who’s going to profit the most from all that?”
“Morden.”
“He’s wanted that Council seat for years. Now there’s nothing standing in his way.”
“So Levistus loses, and it just means Morden wins instead.” Luna grimaced. “Great.”
I didn’t answer; it was too close to what had been going through my head a minute ago. It’s not the first time I’ve been caught in a power struggle between Levistus and Morden, and once again, the most I’d been able to get was a partial victory. I was still alive, but so were they.
But sitting there in the Belfry, I made a decision. I was tired of Levistus and Morden. I’d seen enough people sacrificed as pawns in their political games. I wanted them to pay for what they’d done. Maybe for someone like me, they really were just untouchable. But if I had the chance . . .
Then I’ll bring them down. That’s a promise.
Something in the futures caught my attention, and I looked up. There was a mage crossing the floor towards us. Luna followed my gaze, and her eyes narrowed as she saw who it was. We watched in silence as he walked up to us and stopped. I didn’t say anything, and Luna didn’t either.
“Hey,” Haken said. Given what had happened to him, he looked in pretty good shape. It wasn’t really a surprise; Keepers get a good health plan. “Can I have a word?” His eyes flicked to Luna.
I paused just long enough to make it clear I was thinking about it. “I’ll be back in a bit,” I told Luna, then rose to my feet. Luna didn’t answer, and her eyes stayed on Haken as we walked away.
Haken and I crossed the Belfry, footsteps echoing on the stone as we traced the lines of the patterns beneath our feet. Other mages were scattered around, but none came close. I could sense subtle wards meant to detect eavesdropping. We rounded a column and turned left, still in silence.
“Committee are dragging their feet about Cerulean,” Haken said at last.
“Yeah, I bet they are.” Cerulean hadn’t shown up for his inquiry, even though they hadn’t officially suspended him yet. That one was going to be a major embarrassment for the Keepers. Informing on the side was one thing, but having one Keeper outright betray another was not going to do their reputation any favours. About the only consolation from their point of view was that with all the other political developments, no one had all that much attention to spare for a Keeper being fired.
“The guys we’re holding from White Rose are saying they didn’t know anything about it.”
I shrugged. “Might be true.”
“Yeah.”
There was a pause. We rounded another column and passed by the reception desks, heading back across the floor.
“So . . .” Haken said.
“Go ahead and ask it.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Do what?”
Haken gave me a look.
“I don’t know everything,” I said. “You’ll have to narrow down the question.”
“I talked to Slate,” Haken said. “He said that it was because of you that they found me.”
I grinned. “Slate must have loved having to admit that.”
“So . . . ?”
“So?”
“You could have led them somewhere else.”
“I could.”
“So why’d you do it?”
I walked for a little way before answering. “Maybe it helped me prove my innocence to the Keepers,” I said at last. “Maybe I didn’t see any profit in holding a grudge. Maybe it was some other reason.” I shrugged. “From your perspective, does it matter?”
“Maybe not,” Haken said. “All the same . . . I’m curious.”
“When Cerulean tried to shoot me, you had a split second to decide whether to try to kill me, or whether to try to stop me,” I said. “You tried to stop me. If you want a reason, you can go with that.”
“And I assume you’re not going to tell me how you went through that wall of fire or how you vanished off our senses.”
“Yup.”
We’d done nearly a full circuit of the Belfry, and as we turned the final column, Haken stopped. “Then just so you know,” he said. “Levistus isn’t going to forget this. Right now he’s going for that Senior Council seat. But sooner or later, once that’s done, he’s going to come after you. There won’t be any more threats or warnings. If I were you? I’d start working on an escape plan.”