Divided: The Alliance Series Book Four (22 page)

I shook my head. “No.”

“Yet you knew how to reach… Valeria? You chose that world?”

I did?
I hadn’t a clue why the doorway had opened there. Yeah, if he’d let go of me, I might have had a shot at escape, but I could just as easily have fallen to my death. The mental image of those two Stoneskins falling out of the sky was so outlandish, I couldn’t help a smile.

“You think it’s funny?”

“Your face is,” I said, grinning at him.
Go on. Hit me.
I’d lost him two of his minions—
and,
if anyone came through this part of the Passages, they’d see the blood on the floor. At this point, I’d take every small victory. I was cracking up.

The StoneKing sighed, turning the piece of metal over in his hand. Then he pressed it to the wall, gripping my arm tight. Dread rose within me again.
Not Enzar.

But instead, the world that appeared in the doorway was none other than a familiar swamp.

“Again?” I said, disbelieving.

“You dislike the swampland?” asked the StoneKing. “I admit, I do find it distasteful.”

“What was the point in dragging us through that city if you’re planning to go back here?” I said.

The StoneKing pulled me alongside him. “I am following the nearest magic trace. The closest leads back to this world. Unless you
do
know something, Adamantine?”

We stepped onto boggy ground again. This part of Cethrax looked no different to the world we’d left behind—just mud, rotting, sharp-branched trees, and a cloudy dark purple sky.

“Tell me,” said the StoneKing, and the two minions closed in. “I need you, but I will not hesitate to kill your unfortunate human companions. Two of them in particular. What is it you know about world-travel?”

Bastard.
“No,” I said. “I’ve no idea. It’s true.”

And there went my brief advantage. Not that I could have kept up the pretence for long. If I
had
known how world-keys worked, I might have been able to do more. Get some people out of harm’s way. Just one person. I couldn’t condemn everyone along with me.

The other Stoneskins passed through the doorway in formation, then the humans, guarded either side. Guilt rose within me. Stoneskins held onto both Aric and Gervene, the former of whom seemed pretty subdued. At least they hadn’t hurt either of them.

But that put my ideas to dust. My heart sank when the last of the Stoneskins at the back of the group came through, and the StoneKing dragged me over to where the gleaming piece of metal lay. I expected him to pick it up, but instead, he brought his stone foot down with a thud that jarred through me. The stone was broken—as was our way back. His adamantine skin must have killed what was left of the magic inside it.

“Nothing to say, Adamantine?”

“What, you want me to congratulate you? Why are we back here?”

“I told you: it’s where the trace is leading me.”

“So you’re leading us around in circles?” I said, incredulity rising by the second. I couldn’t believe the other Stoneskins put their faith in a lunatic who freely admitted he didn’t even know where he was going.

“If you have a better way, I’d be glad to hear it, Adamantine.”

“Stop calling me that.” I swore as I sank up to my ankles in mud again.

“It’s your name, isn’t it?”

“Only one person gets to call me my real name, and it isn’t you.” I yelped as he lifted me out of the thick mud. “What’s
your
real name?”

“None of your concern,” said the StoneKing, sharply. “Come. We have ground to cover, and I would assume you have no desire to spend the night in the swampland. Nobody will defend your friends, should Cethrax’s perils strike.”

Cursing him, I had no choice but to let the Stoneking lead me through the swamp.

“You’re following a magic trace,” I said. “But none of the creatures here can use magic. If anything, they repel it.”

“Someone used magic… near here. Fairly recently.”

I blinked. Looked around. I couldn’t sense anything, but the StoneKing held my arm.

A horrible possibility hit my heart. He was blocking my magic—was he blocking my signal, too? Would anyone be able to find me now?

My blood chilled as my eyes rested on a human-sized, reptilian body, half-sunk into the swamp, wings splayed out.

A wyvern.

Hell.
The scaled monster was definitely dead, and there was more than one of them. Dead lizard-like monsters slumped across the swampland.
Someone killed them?
Someone from here… no. Sparks sizzled from the wounds on their scaled bodies. They’d been zapped with Alliance stunners.

I turned back to the doorway, but it had gone.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

KAY

“So,” said Ms Weston, resting her hands on her desk. “What exactly were you researching in the archives? Markos tells me you were there all yesterday.”

Oh, hell.
Markos had actually covered for me. Who would have thought he’d go that far? Only the centaur knew the archives backwards. And he’d apparently rearranged the whole office, too, and stolen Ms Weston’s files. I’d have found it amusing, but for the circumstances.

I played at nonchalance, my gaze drifting over the rearranged filing cabinets on both sides of her office. Someone—and I could hazard a guess who—had swapped the contents of each shelf with the one below, and by the look of her desk, rearranged it so everything faced backwards. I’d never underestimate the centaur again.

“Doorways,” I said, without missing a beat. “Seeing as those Stoneskins did something I’ve never seen before. More than once. It takes a certain type of source to keep a doorway open, right?”

Maybe I was pushing my luck, but I figured the closer to the truth I stayed, the more likely she was to believe me. Besides, maybe she had more information.

“Yes, but I cannot say I’ve ever had a particular interest in magic-based sources, Kay.” Again, that penetrating look. She’d guessed
something,
and it was a matter of time before she landed on the truth. It was bad enough she’d compared my attempts to rescue Ada to my mother’s last fight to liberate Thairon. God only knew I was grasping at straws.

Maybe even part of me knew odds were, it was too late already. But the Stoneskins posed a threat to the Alliance whether they had Ada or not. It was my job to stop them.

“I just wondered, seeing as that’s what the Conners did. It’s in the report. It looked similar on Vey-Xanetha, too, when the Stoneskins—whoever—opened the door to Cethrax and imprisoned the Vox.” That, too, was a mystery. If Vey-Xanetha was usually cut off aside from the single Passage doorway, how had those Stoneskins even found them? I didn’t think they’d come from there. The ones who’d taken Ada had spoken English, which suggested at least some of them were from the allied worlds. They weren’t from Cethrax, either.

But Mr Helm had said sources from certain matching worlds
could
open direct doorways. And the two worlds had previously been linked. But that left the question of who the Stoneskins actually were, and what they’d needed the magic they’d been amassing from Veyak for. Unlimited energy meant unlimited possibilities, for anyone with an imagination. You could use it to blow things up, like on Enzar, or make invisible cars, like Mr Helm had. Or make implants for humans to give them superpowers, like on Klathica… or a more extreme version, like the Alliance’s experiments. Like the Stoneskins themselves, maybe.

Ms Weston sighed. “Your fellow Ambassadors couldn’t confirm your story. The council won’t take the word of one person alone.”

“Because Ada and I were the only ones to go through the doorway,” I said. “Vey-Xanetha’s stable now it’s closed, right?”

“Yes, it is. I recently spoke to Kevar. He had a report from a young follower of Xanet, who told him someone saw an Alliance guard in the city. Might that be you?”

“Yes, like I told you,” I said.
Goddammit, we’re past that now!
“The girl saved my life after the Stoneskins almost beat me to death. But they’d already taken Ada. I can’t pick up her signal.”

“Pick up her signal?”

“You gave me a tracker,” I said, throwing caution to the winds. “I can normally trace a signal. But it’s like it’s vanished off the face of the Multiverse. Is that not enough proof?”

“Proof she’s beyond our reach,” said Ms Weston. “You are right about the hidden Passage, Kay, but you should concentrate on what concerns you—your duty to the Alliance. Not
magic source theory.
”

I met her eyes evenly. “I told you the truth.”

“You told me you intended to violate Alliance code,” said Ms Weston. “I asked every department what they could contribute to the investigation, and the tech team seem to think it’s possible to project a radio signal offworld. Further than the close allied worlds, like our communicators can reach. This sounds awfully like one of your theories, Kay.”

Damn. Jeth must have told the rest of the department.

“I’ve no idea,” I said. “Really. I don’t even have a working communicator—why would I be interested in contacting anyone offworld?”

“Ada has her communicator, does she not?”

“Yes,” I said, “but you said yourself her tracker’s disappeared.”

“Yes, I did,” said Ms Weston. “I’m glad you remember that detail, at least, Kay. But I meant what I said—some things aren’t worth risking your life for. It seems you were the one I should have warned, from the beginning. When I promoted you to Ambassador, I was under the impression I was putting responsibility in the hands of someone who could keep a level head in a crisis, and who would put the Alliance above his personal concerns.”

You’re still playing that game?
“You can’t expect me to ignore something that has the potential to pose a threat to the entire Alliance.” I wouldn’t give up on Ada. I couldn’t. But the threat to the Alliance—it was my job to deal with it. And right now, the two were aligned.

“If we had
proof,
Kay, there is a threat to the Alliance, we would act immediately. We know well of the dangers of Cethrax, and were it not for your revoked Ambassadorial status, we would consider sending a team to negotiate with the Vox leaders over these doorways in the hidden Passage…”

“When?” I asked, barely managing to keep my voice steady. If there was a chance Ada might have been near the place—I had to know. “The Vox leader will confirm he was under the control of the Stoneskins, chained under a doorway to Vey-Xanetha.”

“Kay, what you’re telling me is
impossible.
Creating a doorway between two separate worlds without the Passages as an intermediary would damage the Balance on such a level, the repercussions would be felt across the Multiverse. World-keys themselves are highly unstable when misused, as I suspect
you
did—even if your report is true, you broke several of the Alliance’s rules.”

Yes, we’ve been through this already.
“I gave my reasons. Have you spoken to Raj and Iriel? They can confirm the Vox’s account of events. The two worlds of Cethrax and Vey-Xanetha were linked in the past, when the population first migrated across the worlds a thousand years ago. They have legends about a chasm, a kind of crossroads between the worlds. Raj and Iriel both heard the story, too. They can verify it.”

Not that I wished a trip into Cethrax on either of them.

“As it happens, Cethrax have agreed to a meeting with Earth’s collective Alliance, based on reports sent in from New York. You know Simon Anders, I assume?”

“Yeah, he called me.” Again, I figured an approximation of the truth was my best option here. “Seeing as I was the one who found the Passage.”

“Yes, there is that,” said Ms Weston. “Why, Kay, is it always you? Half the team sent to investigate the place got lost in the lower levels.”

“Because I’m a magic-wielder,” I said. “I think some parts of the Passage are hidden from non-magic-wielders. That’s why I wanted to be involved with it.”

“Carl has been trying to pinpoint all these doorways to Cethrax. They seem to change of their own accord… unless someone else is meddling in there.”

Hell.
“I have no idea,” I said. “Do you mean recently?”

“Several times. I’ve asked all novices to send an alert straight to me if they find anything out of place.”

At least she understood it was serious.

“Good,” I said. “I don’t trust that place. Is there nothing I can do to help? I can see through magic-based illusions.” I’d explored every inch of the place already, but if anywhere was close to Ada, it was Cethrax’s hidden Passage. I
had
picked up a hint of her trace, I was sure of it.

“Kay, you’ll go into the Passages again
only
when I give my permission. I’m glad you remember your place here. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be keeping a close watch on you.”