Divided: The Alliance Series Book Four (23 page)

Glad to hear it.
“Right,” I said. “Does that mean I can return to Ambassadorial duties?” I was far from in the mood for offworld politics, but if it gave me legal access to the Passages again, I’d take it.

“Not yet,” said Ms Weston. “As a matter of fact, Markos could use some help cleaning up the abominable mess he made of our records. I’m sure it will keep you busy.”

Figures.

“That’s more important than searching the Passages?”

Ms Weston sighed. “Kay, I’m trying to keep on top of fifty offworld mission reports, including some urgent
messages coming from the upper-floors on cross-world negotiations. If the information you gave me becomes relevant, I will take note.”

Dammit.
“Urgent messages? Which world?”

“That’s none of your concern,” said Ms Weston. “Now, go and help Markos. And if you should happen to see a world-key or Chameleon lying around, you will return it to my office.”

“Sure,” I said.

That was a close call.
And I couldn’t read Ms Weston at all, so God knew if she’d worked out who’d taken them. She was certainly sharp, but maybe she was giving me a chance to make amends. To work with the Alliance again.

But to do that, I’d have to give up on Ada.

“Oh, and one last thing,” she said. “As of now, the main entrance to the Passages is locked down until we’ve solved the issue with the hidden tunnel. I considered lifting your probationary ban, but I think it would be wise to wait until it safe.”

Dammit. Even if I walked in there invisible, the guards would notice the Passage door open. So much for sneaking around.

Later.
I left the office and heard raised voices on the stairs. With a glance over my shoulder, I slipped out into the corridor to find Carl in conversation with several other senior staff.

“This is ridiculous,” he was saying. “We don’t have enough people to spare. Simple as. Sixty percent of the guards are barely-trained novices, and we won’t be able to hire any new Academy graduates until next August. Overseas applications are down since the attack on Central, and so are offworld ones—as expected.” He spotted me. “Kay, you don’t happen to know about this ridiculous plan to send an envoy to
Cethrax,
do you?”

“Something has to be done,” I said. “Didn’t the council send representatives there after the Campbell family made a deal with them?”

“Certainly not,” said Carl. “We dealt with the matter in a neutral zone. Danica’s talking about sending people into the swampland. That place is a death trap for anyone, Earth or otherwise.”

“It’s also halfway into the Passages by now,” I pointed out. “If you need me for anything, let me know.”

“Yes, your new communicator is set up,” said Carl, handing it to me. “Maybe there’s something to the wyvern-hide cover idea…”

That, or sciras.
Speaking of which, I hadn’t asked Jeth how it was coming along.

I’d have gone back to the Passages, were it not for it being under close scrutiny right now. I paused on the stairs, making sure no one was around, and tapped the earpiece.

“Anything?”

“No. Whereabouts are you?” asked Jeth.

“Central. They’re combing the Passages. A bunch of adolescent wyverns got loose from Cethrax. But they didn’t find anything of Ada’s. No magic trace, either.”

“Worth a try,” said Jeth.

“Have you managed to do anything with that sciras yet?”

“Kind of. I’ve added a layer to one of the Chameleons. Like bloodrock solution. Took a few goes, but Alber used it and put his hand through the living room wall. He
said
it didn’t hurt, but I can’t say it would stand up to those… Stoneskin, whatevers.”

“Let me try it,” I said.

“I’m fine-tuning it. Should’ve known you’d volunteer to run yourself into a wall.”

“I got beaten up by a wall twice in the same day. Anyway, my boss keeps hounding me. I’d go offworld, but the Passage entrance is probably sealed by now, and there might be a team going to Cethrax to negotiate with the Vox. I tried to persuade her to send me there, because it’s the last place I know Ada was, apart from Vey-Xanetha. It might be the Vox saw her in their territory. A group of monsters made of rock—no way could they get through Cethrax unnoticed, even in the middle of nowhere.”

“Or you might get eaten,” said Jeth. “Even sciras wouldn’t protect you from a wyvern’s poison barb, or drowning in the swamp.”

“It’s a start,” I said. “I need to check in with my department. Let me know if anything happens.”

“All right,” said Jeth. “I’ll see if I can get the other Chameleon upgraded. Then you can test-drive this one if you like. Al’s destroyed enough furniture already.”

“Yeah,” I said.
Damn.
Nothing from Ada,
and
the Passages out of bounds. I’d have more luck trekking through Cethrax’s swamps.

“There you are, human,” said Markos, withdrawing his head from a filing cabinet. “Come to help?”

“Unfortunately,” I muttered, glancing out the window. London sat under gloomy fog. Inside the office was an entire forest’s worth of paper, by the looks of things. “Did you move the contents of
every
cabinet?”

“And her desk,” said Markos. “Some of the other senior staff, too. The novices are all in training, so every anomaly on this floor is being blamed on me. I did tell them it was Evan, but they all saw a centaur. Pity I don’t have a fancy invisibility trick like you do.”

“You don’t want one,” I said. “Where is Evan, anyway?” I’d forgotten the idiot novice was even here.

“Around. I think he thought the falling cabinets were the work of the ghost.”

“Good,” I said, absently, picking up a sheaf of paper. “Pity we can’t send him to Cethrax.”

Ada might not have got the message yet.
But I checked my communicator every other minute all the same. Better than speculating on whether Ada was still alive after two days with those monstrosities.

And thanks to bloody Cethrax, the Passages were off limits. I scanned through the Alliance’s files on my communicator—again—checking for any information that might help. Cethax’s file was more focused on the varieties of monsters than on how it violated all the natural laws of the Passages and doorways. That figured. But I bookmarked a section on how to diplomatically argue with a Vox leader, just in case. Come to think of it, one of those bastards owed me a favour.

I moved files without really paying attention to where I put them. An idea began to take shape. Unsurprisingly, it would fall into the category “batshit insane”. If the only way to find the Stoneskins was to go through Cethrax, I
did
have a little piece of information which might save my life. Not that it would help against wyverns or other wild beasts, but most sentient Cethraxians answered to the Vox. Unfortunately, Cethraxians didn’t understand the concept of owing someone a favour. If anything, the Vox probably thought sparing my life was enough compensation. Typical.

Maybe I should just go to Cethrax, with or without Alliance permission. Except it was a hundred times more dangerous even than going into the Passages alone. And dragging Ada’s family into it? It wasn’t an idea I was keen on. They weren’t magic-wielders, aside from Alber, and even that wasn’t an advantage in the swamplands. Not that there was a method for long-distance travel through the place anyway. The Stoneskins must be travelling on foot. But Cethrax was riddled with doorways. I couldn’t count on anything.

My communicator buzzed.
It’s not her,
I told myself.

It wasn’t Ada. A message had gone out from Valeria’s Alliance reporting dangerous magical activity in the capital, and requesting immediate assistance from any available magic-wielders. Marked as
urgent.

Hellfire.
The very last thing I needed. I wasn’t sure whether probation extended to situations like this. I’d say not, but the same reasoning had got me blacklisted in the first place.

A magic-wielder was loose in Valeria? For a world with pretty consistent second level magic, natural-born magic-wielders were surprisingly rare. Which meant something had gone wrong, or they were offworlders. On the other hand, volunteering to help would get me instant, legal access to the Passages.

“I just got a call,” I said to Jeth on the way downstairs. “There’s something happening on Valeria. If I sign up, I’ve an excuse to get into the Passages.”

“Valeria?”
said Jeth. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Unusual magic-wielders, they said. Would I be able to pick up one of those adjusted Chameleons?”

“Oh, for—fine, I’ll come. But don’t get yourself killed. Nell will be pissed off if you die before finding Ada. Wouldn’t surprise me if she tries to follow you.”

“She can talk to the Alliance, then,” I said.

At the foot of the stairs, Carl waited again, looking incredibly riled. “Back
again,”
he said. “I have twenty novices in the Passages wanting to get a free ticket into Valeria, but none of whom are qualified to go one-to-one with a magic-wielder. And I’m told these are particularly brutal.”

“Great,” I said. “Cethrax or dangerous magic-wielders. Maybe I should flip a coin.”

Carl’s eyes narrowed. “Kay, this is no joke.”

“I know,” I said. “Listen—Ada’s brother’s coming, and he has something that might help us fight the Stoneskins, or whatever’s attacking people. Can you let him into the Passages? I should probably check what’s happening.”

Carl sighed. “No. Kay, you’re treading the line between anti-authoritarian and unhinged already, and to be perfectly honest, neither of those things qualify you to enter the Passages.” His communicator buzzed, and he looked at it, alarmed. “Damn. Fine, Kay—you go. The attackers aren’t magic-wielders. They’re using antimagic.”

It’s them.
It had to be. “I’ll go,” I said, already breaking into a run.

Ada.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ADA

Walking through the swamp was even more excruciating accompanied by the StoneKing. He switched between taunting and enraged every other minute. Worse was the threat the other Stoneskins would hurt the human prisoners, twisted with the guilt that I’d almost got them killed already, and the screaming sense of urgency. I had to get away before the Stoneskins succeeded where the Royals had failed.

Monster.
The Multiverse seemed to want to make me into one. I’d die before I hurt anyone else, but what had happened with the living magic force, not to mention that piece of Passage, drove home the idea that it was too easy to hit people by accident. If it came down to it, and if I couldn’t escape my own fate, maybe I could set the others free. The StoneKing was expecting me to make a bid for freedom. But the next time they used the doorway key, I had an idea.

First, I had to distract the bastard holding my arm.

We followed a meandering path through marshy ground. The swarms of flies in the air had no interest in the Stoneskins but really went for me. I swatted at them, pretending to be more annoyed than I actually was, searching for any opening. I tensed at a screeching cry, and a group of hideous three-headed birds descended—but they swooped over our heads in the direction we’d come from. Maybe towards the dead wyverns. The birds looked pretty similar to another monster I’d faced in Vey-Xanetha.

“How do you expect me to fight off those things with no weapon?” I said, as another monstrosity swooped low enough that I ducked to avoid its claws.

“They won’t attack you.” But the StoneKing called his soldiers into a closer formation.

He didn’t bother with the other humans. Of course not.

Bastard.

I pretended to drag my feet more than I needed to in order to get a close look at which Stoneskins he most trusted. Either side was one of those giants, but they didn’t seem to understand English, nor to do anything but snarl at anyone who got too close. The two Stoneskins walking directly behind them, though, appeared to be the ones he trusted. One carried a battered rucksack-type bag, not Earth-style. Valerian? Most of their supplies seemed to be from there, anyway. And it was either supplies they carried, or something more valuable. Like pieces of the substance the Passages were made of. World-keys. I’d glimpsed a gleam of blue, before the Stoneskin had zipped it. Definitely a source, but not one I’d used before.

So they must be one-use only, and judging by what had happened, they couldn’t be tuned into just one world. For some reason, the one I’d activated in the Passages had led to Neo Greyle, Valeria. Might that happen again? Could I get the others into an Alliance world? If not for the Stoneskins, my magic signal might have been left on Valeria. But if it had, the Alliance never sent people directly into the swamp. Even if their employees got kidnapped, apparently.

I dragged my feet even more. We were in the middle of the group, but it was more of a loose formation based on who moved the fastest through the swamp. The Stoneskins were more focused on not sinking in the mud than keeping an eye on me, and as we slowed further, one row of guards remained between me and the humans. I pretended to be overly interested in the scenery, which consisted of a handful of ragged trees. The wood was bone-white and the edges of the broken branches looked sharp. They’d actually make good weapons, against a human, anyway.