Burned (11 page)

Maybe that wasn’t such a terrible legacy to leave behind.

I switched off the lights and went to check in on Luna.

I took a bus to Islington and walked the rest of the way to the gym, shivering slightly in the cold. Most of the building was dark but I could see light from a couple of top-floor windows. The front door was locked and I had to circle around and enter from the side.

Inside, the building was badly lit and cold. There was no heating, and in the faint light filtering in from the street, I could see my breath in the air. Looking through the futures, I could sense people above, and I started climbing the stairs. As I ascended, I began to hear sounds: stamping feet, and the
whoosh
of heated air. It sounded like a fight, but I knew it wasn’t combat. The stairs ended in a landing and a hallway, with several open doors. Light was spilling through one of them, and as I approached I saw Chalice silhouetted through the doorway, leaning against the wall. She glanced in my direction, then turned back to the source of the noise. From within the room I felt a surge of fire magic, followed a second later by a rush of movement. I crossed to the doorway and looked inside.

The gym was tall, with high windows looking out on to the night sky. The floor was clear, and standing at the centre were Luna and Variam. Luna was wearing her exercise clothes, and Variam was wearing the black warded cloth he uses for fights. Both were in fighting stances, and they seemed to be so focused on each other that they hadn’t noticed my arrival. I kept quiet, watching.

Luna stepped sideways, circling. She had her whip out, and in my magesight I could see the lash curling away behind her, a line of silver-grey mist, twisting with her movements. Variam didn’t move, but his eyes tracked her. I could sense Luna building for an attack; she was about to strike …
now
.

The whip lashed out. The strand was thinner than it was at full strength, but still dangerous: Luna’s curse is unpredictable, and even a small dose of that silver mist can be deadly. Variam threw out a hand, and a shield of flame flashed into existence, burning the whip away. Variam struck back, heat bursts exploding in Luna’s path. Just like Luna’s whip, they were invisible to normal eyesight, but they each took a half second to form. Luna broke into a run, swerving from side to side; heat bursts flashed to her left and right, barely missing. Luna’s whip had already reformed, and as another of Variam’s spells struck in front of her Luna skidded to a halt and sent the whip slashing back out. This time, Variam had to bring up his fire shield directly in front of him, interrupting his attacks, and Luna took the opportunity to strike again. Magic flashed back and forth, quick and deadly, orange-red meeting silver-grey, destroying each other when they collided. It was hard to see who had the advantage. Variam was faster, but he had to devote much of his strength to blocking the whip strikes, while his spells kept missing.

I glanced at Chalice. She was observing the battle, apparently absorbed in the exchange. As I watched, she seemed to come to a decision and bent down to reach into her bag. The object she retrieved was a metal cylinder, painted a dark green. A ring and a lever protruded from the top. It almost looked like a—

Chalice pulled the ring out of the cylinder. ‘Grenade!’ she called, and lobbed it underarm at Luna.

I moved instinctively, but Luna was already spinning, her palm coming up. The grenade bounced on the wooden floor, and silver mist surged from Luna’s hand and into the metal. The grenade bounced again, skittered over the floor. Luna stood her ground, the mist of her curse pouring into the thing. The grenade came to a stop only ten feet from her, and—

Phut.
There was a fizzling noise, then nothing.

I looked into the futures and saw no explosion. A dud. Luna looked up at Chalice with a satisfied expression.

‘At least you got it this time,’ Variam said, wandering up. He’d stopped his attack as soon as the grenade had been thrown. ‘Hey, Alex.’

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘“This time”?’

‘That wasn’t my fault,’ Luna said. ‘I wasn’t ready.’

I looked at Chalice with raised eyebrows.

‘I thought you were in a hurry,’ Chalice said. For someone who’d just been tossing live grenades around, she looked remarkably unconcerned. She turned back to Luna. ‘Better, but you’re still forcing it. Your magic knows where to go. Trust it.’

‘Yeah, okay.’ Luna looked at me. ‘So? What do you think?’

‘Pretty good,’ I said. I meant it. Variam might be technically an apprentice, but he’s as capable as any Light mage of his age that I’ve met, if not better. He might have been holding back a little, but even so, the fact that Luna could go toe to toe with him was impressive. I didn’t think those heat bursts would have been fatal, but they would have really hurt. ‘You’re not using azimuth shields?’

‘Won’t be any in the test,’ Luna said.

‘You’re taking this seriously, aren’t you?’

‘Like she said, we’re in a hurry.’ Luna walked to the bench and towelled off her face. Now that I looked, I could see that her clothing was damp with sweat. ‘Let’s go again.’

‘Don’t you want to give it a break?’ Variam said.

Luna flashed him a smile. ‘Chicken?’

Variam scowled and walked out on to the floor. Luna tossed the towel back on to the bench and went to join him, unsheathing her whip as she did. The two of them faced off again.

‘What do you think her chances are?’ I said quietly to Chalice. We were standing next to each other against the wall, out of earshot of Luna and Vari.

‘Combat-wise, she’s excellent,’ Chalice replied. Like me, she kept her voice down, and she didn’t take her eyes off Luna. ‘As good as any Light chance apprentice or better.’

‘Your work?’

‘I’ve shown her some new applications, but all of the work has been hers. She practises hard.’

‘I’ve seen,’ I said. Out on the floor, Luna and Variam clashed again. They were more cautious this time, probing. ‘I note you don’t compare her to
Dark
chance apprentices.’

Chalice glanced at me with a slight smile. ‘Well, that wouldn’t exactly be fair.’

I rolled my eyes.

‘In any case,’ Chalice said, ‘I don’t think she has anything to worry about as regards combat trials. Light mages usually underestimate how effective chance mages can be. I suspect she’ll mop up anything they send at her.’

‘What about non-combat?’

‘You saw what she did with the flashbang,’ Chalice said. ‘That’s one area we’ve been working on. She’s become quite good at hexing objects. Not as good as she is with living things, but most machines and other devices won’t last too long.’

I wondered exactly what ‘working on’ meant in that context, and decided not to ask. If we survived all this, I’d bring it up with Luna later. ‘Okay, that’s her strengths. What about weaknesses?’

‘Touch,’ Chalice said. Out on the gym floor, Luna feinted at Variam, then struck. The whip almost made it past Variam’s shield, and Variam had to jump away. ‘We’ve made progress. Given the timescale, good progress. But it’s still dangerous for Luna to lay hands on anyone else. She can do it, but not consistently.’ Chalice looked at me. ‘Luna’s been in the apprentice programme for over two years, correct?’

‘Over three.’

‘And she competes openly in tournaments.’

I nodded.

‘Then I assume her abilities are well known by now,’ Chalice said. ‘The Light mages are aware of what she can do. And what she can’t.’

I sighed. ‘Yeah.’ It was one of the reasons I’d been reluctant to introduce Luna into magical society. Her curse is a powerful protection, but it’s a lot less effective against an opponent who knows about it. ‘We’ve done our best to stay quiet and I did a little disinformation, but I think at this point we have to assume that it’s public knowledge. Anyone in Light society who wants to find out, can find out.’

‘Then there’s a good chance that the mages setting her test will know that too,’ Chalice said. ‘It’s possible that they’ll miss it, given the short time span … but I doubt it. If they want to target her weak points, that’s where she’s vulnerable.’

‘Is that what you think they’ll do?’

Chalice shrugged. ‘It’s hard to know how Light mages think.’

‘But if
you
were testing her, forcing her to confront her weaknesses,’ I said quietly, ‘that’s what you’d do. Isn’t it?’

Chalice nodded.

‘Anything we can do?’

‘I’ll give her all the practice I can, and I’ll make sure she’s warned. Beyond that?’ Chalice shrugged again. ‘It’s up to her.’

I gave Chalice a sideways look. Dark mages have a survival-of-the-fittest attitude when it comes to training apprentices, and their usual approach is to chuck the apprentice in at the deep end and see if they learn how to swim. If they do, great. If not … well, that’s their problem. I wondered exactly how much of a Dark mage Chalice was.

‘Have there been any developments on the other matter we discussed?’ Chalice said.

‘Your payment?’ I said. ‘As a matter of fact, yes. It looks like I might be in position to get a very close look at whatever it is that Richard’s after within the next few days. So it seems as though you might get exactly what you want.’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘Funny coincidence, don’t you think?’

Chalice smiled slightly. ‘Lucky me.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Lucky you. Why exactly do you want to know what Richard’s up to?’

‘We all have our reasons.’

‘“We all have our reasons” is a valid explanation for deciding to what colour scarf to buy. It is not a valid explanation for wanting inside information on one of the most dangerous and secretive Dark mages in Britain.’

‘Actually, I’d say it is.’

I looked at Chalice for a second. ‘When you came to me earlier this year, the deal you offered was an alliance,’ I said. ‘That goes both ways. If you want my help, I want to know what you’re going to be using this information for.’

Chalice was silent, and I didn’t speak, watching the futures shift. Out on the floor, Luna and Variam had dropped out of their fighting stances and were having a discussion about something or other. ‘All right,’ Chalice said at last.

‘All right?’

‘Find out what Richard is looking for. Find out what it does. Then I’ll tell you exactly why I want to know. And you can decide whether our aims are compatible.’ Chalice looked at me, her dark eyes giving nothing away. ‘Reasonable?’

I looked back at her for a moment, then nodded. ‘All right.’

I stayed at the gym until late, taking turns with Variam to partner for Luna. The more we practised, the more I came to agree with Chalice’s assessment: there were few Light apprentices who could match Luna when it came to combat skill. I couldn’t realistically see any Light mage setting Luna a combat challenge that she couldn’t ace.

Touch, though … well, part of the reason Luna has such a knack for battle magic is that it’s what her curse is good at. Her curse is great at protecting her, and it’s great at hurting others. It’s
not
hurting others that’s the problem. I’d always known that this was going to be the biggest thing Luna would struggle with, but I’d hoped to give her more time with Chalice before her tests. Luna was better at controlling her curse – she’d even reached the point where she could touch someone briefly, as long as she maintained concentration. (Variam had stood in as the test subject for that, which in my opinion showed a really impressive level of trust.) But would it be enough?

It was almost midnight when we finally ended for the day. Luna was dead on her feet, and I wasn’t much better. It had been a long day. Variam took Luna home, and I gated back to my flat, pulled off my clothes and dropped into bed. The bedroom was cold, and I shivered for a few minutes before the sheets warmed up and I fell asleep.

I drifted through dreams, some comfortable, most not. I was hiding in my room, curled up quiet and still, and someone was nearby. They were looking for me, and they were going to come inside, but I stayed as quiet as I could, hoping that they’d go away, even when I knew they were going to find me.

I didn’t notice at first when my room began to change and brighten. Only when the light crept out to fill the room did I open my eyes. The whole far wall was bare to the outside, leading out on to a balcony; gauzy white curtains were the only barrier, stirring gently in the wind. The air blew against my face, warm and dry. I rose to my feet and walked outside.

The light was bright, dazzling, and I had to shield my eyes to look around. I was standing on the balcony of a tall building made of yellowish stone. Below was an open plaza, and all around was a deserted city, empty doors and windows looking back at me from buildings made of stone and brick. Trees grew amid the streets, their green tops showing from between the rooftops, green and vibrant. The city didn’t feel inhabited, not exactly, but it didn’t feel empty either. Leaves stirred in the wind, and birds circled against the sky, far above. I could hear sounds of life if I stood and listened; distant murmurs, maybe of traffic, maybe of people. Not here, not coming closer, but not far either, as though I could find them if I only knew where to look.

I turned around to see that the room behind me was gone. I was standing on an open, square balcony, chest-high railings surrounding it, the stones cracked and weathered. At the centre, resting in a square of packed earth, was a thick tree growing upwards into the sky. In the shade beneath the tree was a white stone bench.

‘You can come out,’ I said to the balcony.

A girl stepped out from behind the tree. She was small, with short red hair. Back when she’d been alive, she’d always been full of life and movement, but she was standing still now, hands on her hips, staring at me. We looked at each other for a moment.

‘You don’t look happy,’ I said at last.

‘You haven’t done what you promised,’ Shireen said.

I walked forward, coming under the tree. It was still warm even in the shade. I sat down on the stone bench, not meeting Shireen’s gaze. ‘Things have been … difficult.’

Shireen didn’t sit down. ‘You know what you need to do,’ she said. ‘You told me you’d do it.’