Burned (23 page)

‘Are there any Keepers
not
going on this mission?’ I asked Caldera quietly. The two of us were walking down a corridor in the heart of the Westminster headquarters. Others were moving in the same direction, both ahead of us and behind, and most of the offices we’d passed along the way were empty. It felt as though everyone in the building was heading for the same spot.

‘All leave’s been cancelled,’ Caldera said. Ahead of us, a Keeper paused to hold a door open; Caldera nodded her thanks as we caught up to him. ‘The ones who aren’t attached to the units are on standby in case something else goes wrong.’

Up ahead, I could hear the murmur of voices – a lot of voices. It sounded as though we were approaching a crowd. ‘Have you ever been on this big an operation before?’

‘In Britain.’

‘How about outside Britain?’

‘This’ll be a first.’

The corridor we were in opened up into a large room shaped like an amphitheatre. The walls were painted white, with equipment hanging from the ceiling, and at the centre was a wide circular table made out of translucent crystal. Rows of seats formed a semicircle around the table, with a raised mezzanine floor above the seats; there looked to be seating for close to a hundred, and already the room was more than half full, with more people filing in every minute. Keepers were everywhere, in battle gear and mage robes and in civilian clothing; they were talking quietly in pairs and small groups, their voices filling the air with a steady buzz. The far side of the room was occupied with computer equipment, and people who looked like technicians were holding discussions over tablets and displays. Magical auras were everywhere, overloading my mage’s sight with the signatures of hundreds of active spells, elemental and living and universal magics all mixed together to the point where I had trouble telling them apart.

I came to a halt in the entryway, dizzy from all the input. There was too much to take in. ‘Come on,’ Caldera said over her shoulder. ‘Let’s find a seat.’

I caught up with her, nearly tripping as I looked around. ‘Stop staring,’ Caldera said. ‘You look like a tourist.’

A voice called out to us from our left. ‘Hey, you ugly lot. Who let you in?’

We both turned to see a fat, bearded mage with South American looks grinning at us. ‘Oh, bloody hell,’ Caldera said. ‘Didn’t know they were desperate enough to bring you along.’

‘Love you too, Caldy.’ Coatl looked at me. ‘Yo, Verus. You still letting her drag you around?’

I grinned back at him. ‘Could be worse. I could get assigned to you.’

Coatl is from Brazil, a Keeper who arrived on an exchange programme a while back and liked Britain enough to stay. He’s a mind mage, which isn’t one of the types I usually get on with (old prejudices), but I’d first met Coatl earlier this year and to my surprise had come to like him. He’s highly irreverent and insults people a lot, but he’s honest and if he does use his magic to listen in on my thoughts, he does it subtly enough that I haven’t noticed.

As Coatl led us through the crowd, I spotted other mages I recognised. Slate was sitting on one of the front benches, talking to his partner Trask; further back was another Keeper I knew called Lizbeth. Over on the far side was Landis, leaning nonchalantly against the wall, and Rain was standing next to the central table, having some kind of discussion with a pair of men in formal mage robes. And up on the mezzanine floor was … I blinked. ‘Coatl,’ I said, tapping his shoulder and nodding upwards. ‘Is that who I think it is?’

Coatl glanced up. ‘That’s the one.’

Caldera followed our looks. ‘The old guy in blue?’

‘His name’s Alaundo,’ I said. I’d never seen him before, but I recognised him from pictures, a white-haired man in robes leaning on a twisted staff.

‘Oh, him?’ Caldera said. ‘I see his name on the intel forecasts. Didn’t know he ever came in.’

‘He doesn’t,’ Coatl said, dropping down on to a bench and putting his feet up. ‘Wonder what the Council promised him to make him show up?’

‘They’re pulling out all the stops, aren’t they?’ I said. Master Alaundo is the foremost diviner for the Council, and probably the most famous diviner in Britain. He was supposed to spend most of the year on his private estate on the Isle of Man, only leaving for very special occasions. I had to admit, I was impressed. Alaundo is a living legend in divination circles.

I was about to turn back when something caught my attention. The man Alaundo was talking to had hair the same shade of white, but he was thinner and more sprightly. He had his back to me, but as he shifted position I caught a glimpse of his face. I hadn’t seen him for years, but I recognised him instantly: it was my old teacher, Helikaon. I’d studied with him for a while after leaving Richard.
How many diviners are the Council bringing in on this thing?

‘Hey, Alex,’ Caldera said. ‘You hear that?’

I turned back to Coatl. ‘Sorry, what?’

‘Cinder and Deleo had a couple of men running backup for them last night,’ Coatl said. ‘They put up a barrier and chucked tear gas to make us back off. Force and space magic. Caldera thought you’d know who they were.’

‘Was the force user tall and skinny with black hair?’

‘Wearing a mask, didn’t get a good look at him. But tall, yeah. Powerful, too.’

I nodded. ‘Onyx. Morden’s Chosen, just like Deleo is Richard’s. He’s bad news; keep your distance if you can. But I don’t know anything about a space user on their team.’

‘He seemed pretty young from what I saw.’ Coatl shrugged. ‘Oh well. You’ll probably meet him soon enough.’

‘Yeah, that makes me feel better.’

A double chime sounded, echoing softly through the room. Looking around, I saw that the mages still standing were finding their seats. I sat next to Caldera as the people in the room turned to look towards the centre. A man in mage robes stepped up to the central table and the sounds of conversation fell to a murmur.

‘Good afternoon, Keepers,’ the man said. He looked to be in his fifties, with close-cut brown hair and a square face. I’d never spoken to him, but Caldera had pointed him out in the past: this was Nimbus, an air mage and the Director of Operations for the Order of the Star. ‘I’m sure you’ve all been speculating about today’s operation. Before we start, I’d like to extend our thanks to the Council members who’ve been assisting us in our preparations, and to the members of the Order of the Shield who’ll be providing operational support on the ground.’

Nimbus didn’t seem to be making any effort to raise his voice, but it echoed loudly; some spell or other. A few stragglers were still filtering in through the doors, spreading out around the room to find seats or standing against the walls. Looking around, I could see that the Keepers were paying attention. I’ve seen Keeper briefings get pretty rowdy, but it didn’t look as though there would be any back-talk this time.

‘As some of you may know, over the past year, the Dark mage Richard Drakh has been expanding his power base in Britain,’ Nimbus said. ‘At present he holds influence over a large but loosely organised cabal of Dark mages. Our current assessments indicate that Drakh maintains this control due to his possession of several powerful Precursor relics. We have learned that Drakh is currently attempting to acquire another artefact, this one more powerful than those he already owns. He will attempt to retrieve this relic tonight.’

A figure standing behind Nimbus had caught my eye. He had receding straw-coloured hair and was dressed in mage robes in muted colours. ‘Caldera,’ I murmured. ‘Guy behind Nimbus, third on the right. Is that who I think it is?’

Caldera didn’t look at me. ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’

‘But is it—?’

‘Maradok, yeah.
Don’t
do anything stupid.’

Nimbus was speaking ‘… of the utmost importance.’ He looked towards Maradok. ‘Councilman Maradok.’

Maradok stepped forward. ‘The relic in question is held within a bubble realm.’ He had an upper-class English accent, and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. I wondered if he’d sounded the same way when ordering my assassination. ‘The bubble realm can only be accessed from one precise geographical location. The location in question is within the city of Aleppo in Syria.’

A murmur went up from around the audience. Glancing around, I saw looks of surprise, but not as many as I might have expected; some of the audience had probably heard about this in advance. Bubble realms are small pocket realities, fully disconnected from our world; they’re rarer than shadow realms and usually older, not to mention potentially a lot more dangerous. In the centre of the room, the table lit up and a translucent map of Syria appeared in the air above the projector, its borders marked in black and the neighbouring countries in white. A red circular dot was located in the north-west of the country.

‘As you may be aware, Syria is in the midst of an extended civil war,’ Maradok said. ‘Control of the country is divided between government forces, rebels and Islamic State militia.’ As Maradok spoke, sections of the map turned pink, green and grey respectively. ‘Aleppo is one of the battlegrounds and currently contains elements from all three forces, in addition to civilians and neutral parties.’ The map zoomed in and the red dot expanded into a city layout. The colours signifying ownership were still there, but they were blotchy and irregular, mixed up with each other. One spot in the bottom right was marked with a glowing red star. The areas around it were a mixture of grey and green.

‘Since learning of Drakh’s plans, the Light Council of Britain has been in contact with the Light Council of Syria,’ Maradok went on. ‘The Syrian Council have agreed to permit our operations within the designated time window. They have further agreed to provide gate staging points for our use, as well as operational intelligence on the military situation. However, they have warned us that the area in question is not currently under government control. They have also warned us that local Dark mages, as well as Dark mages affiliated with Islamic State, may be attempting to access the relic.’

‘Sounds like a great place,’ I muttered to Caldera.

‘Shh.’

‘The bubble realm is believed to be a storage facility,’ Maradok said. ‘Although our intelligence suggests that it has no stationary wards or bound guardians, the realm nevertheless has a strong defence mechanism. It is protected by a time lock that only permits access under certain highly specific astrological conditions. Those conditions will be satisfied tonight, and when they are, the gate to the bubble realm will open for a period of slightly under three hours. Once this time has elapsed, the gate will close. Once this happens, our current predictions suggest that the astronomical alignment required for another entry will not reoccur until next autumn at the earliest. Our intelligence also suggests that gate access from inside the bubble realm will be highly problematic. Anyone still inside the realm when it closes will most likely be trapped for a minimum of nine months.’

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Keepers glancing at each other. Maradok paused for a moment, then went on. ‘The relic in question is believed to be held within an archaic model of a Minkowski box.’ The map of Syria disappeared, to be replaced by a three-dimensional image of a grey elongated rectangular container with an overlapping lid. As Maradok looked up, the box rotated, giving everyone a good view. ‘According to our current information, the box contains a bound magical creature, held in stasis. The creature is believed to be highly powerful and extremely destructive. Should you attain possession of the box, do not open it under any circumstances. Return it to a representative of the Council at the earliest possible opportunity.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Coatl said to me under his breath. ‘This thing Pandora’s box, or what?’

‘Yeah,’ I said. I’d heard of Minkowski boxes, but didn’t know much about them. ‘I don’t remember that story having a happy ending.’

‘
Shh
,’ Caldera said.

Maradok nodded to his side. ‘Captain Rain.’

Rain stepped forward and the map of Aleppo reappeared, this time zoomed in. ‘We have scouted the area around the bubble realm’s access point,’ he said. ‘Once on the ground, we will split into two teams. The containing force, led by Captain Elandis, will establish a perimeter around the building containing the access point. Meanwhile, the strike team, led by myself, will enter the bubble realm and retrieve the relic.’ He looked around. ‘Any questions?’

Someone near the front raised their hand. ‘Yes?’ Rain asked.

‘What’s the layout of the bubble realm?’ a Keeper I didn’t know asked.

‘We don’t know,’ Rain said. ‘We’ll have to find out once we get inside.’

Another keeper I recognised from Red’s spoke up. ‘What kind of backup do we have?’

‘Keepers from the Order of the Shield will be detailed to your units on an individual basis.’

‘What about reserves?’

‘From the information we’ve been given, gate and teleportation magic within the bubble realm will not work reliably,’ Rain said. ‘That means no mobile reserve. We’ll have what we bring in.’

There was a pause. ‘Any other questions?’ Rain said.

Another Keeper spoke up from out of my line of sight. ‘What happens if the time’s running out and we still haven’t found the relic?’

‘Then we pull out,’ Rain said. ‘The primary objective is to prevent Drakh from acquiring the relic. Retrieving it ourselves is a secondary priority. If we can’t get to it, but Drakh can’t either, that’s good enough for us.’

The Keepers seemed to like that, judging from the reactions. I glanced at the Director of Operations, Nimbus. His expression was neutral, and I wondered whether his priorities were the same as Rain’s.

‘Is that it?’ Rain said when no one else spoke up. ‘Then report to your squad leaders for your assignments. Lead elements gate out in two hours.’ He looked around. ‘Good luck.’

The room broke out in conversation, the Keepers discussing what they’d just heard. I looked at Caldera. ‘You think it’s going to work?’

‘With this much?’ Caldera said. ‘It bloody well should, unless your old master brings an army.’ She shrugged. ‘Guess the Council’s finally taking him seriously.’