Fated: An Alex Verus Novel (37 page)

Rachel shook her head again. ‘Why not?’ I said again, softly into her ear.

Rachel was silent for a long moment. ‘You’d win,’ she said at last, her voice as soft as mine.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You were always good at knowing when you were outmatched, weren’t you? Not like Shireen.’

Rachel held very still. I withdrew, pulling away from her. ‘Now,’ I said coldly. ‘Why should I let you live?’

‘We had a deal—’

I laughed, then, my voice suddenly cruel, and Rachel stopped. ‘Did you think I was that stupid?’

There was fear in Rachel’s eyes, but there was something else too: she was looking at me with respect for the first time, and I found I liked it. ‘Still,’ I said. ‘You might be some use. But payment is only put off. I’ll be calling on you. Understand?’

Rachel nodded carefully. ‘I understand.’ She stepped away, backing towards Cinder.

I lifted an eyebrow. ‘You want him as well?’

‘He’s all I have,’ Rachel said. She spoke simply, and I had the odd feeling that for once she was being honest.

I shrugged. ‘He can share your obligation. Go.’

Rachel nodded again, then opened a gateway and started to pull Cinder through it. Her movements as she pulled the big man were oddly tender. Then the gate closed behind them and I was walking back towards Luna.

‘I don’t understand,’ Luna said as I reached the dais. She’d gotten to her feet, and was standing with her arm cradled awkwardly, staring at me. ‘How did you do that?’

‘Back off two steps,’ I said. Luna did, causing the chains to rattle and draw out. As the links stretched I identified the weakest points, created a pair of hairline flaws, then shattered them with two stamp kicks. I turned towards the wall. ‘This way.’

‘But—’ Luna said, then found she was talking to my retreating back. She hurried after me, the broken chains rattling. ‘Where’s Starbreeze?’

‘She’ll be fine.’ I stopped in front of a featureless section of wall, then spoke a command word. It darkened, then faded away, and I stepped inside. ‘Come on, unless you want to stay.’

Luna started, then followed me in. I touched a control crystal on the wall and with a shudder the room sealed itself and began to move.

‘Alex?’ Luna asked. ‘What does that thing do?’

I smiled. ‘Oh, Luna, I wish you could feel it. It’s like being able to see where you were blind. Watch.’ I stepped forward.

Luna flinched. ‘Don’t!’

I laughed. ‘Your curse? That can’t hurt me now.’ I could see the silvery mist drifting around me, never quite reaching. Occasionally a strand would touch me, but I simply grounded it in the floor, along with the remnants I’d picked up from earlier. It was just as well I’d found the fateweaver when I had; I’d gotten altogether too close to Luna over the past few days. I pointed at Luna’s broken arm, and as she flinched I translated her movement into resetting the bone, aligning the fragments into their proper place. Luna gave a yelp of pain, then stopped suddenly, staring down at her arm. ‘It doesn’t hurt.’

‘I did some encouraging of your body’s healing system. Once we find a healer I’ll have it fixed before you know it.’ I raised my eyebrows. ‘And what do you say to having your curse lifted?’

‘ … What?’

I laughed again. ‘Anything that’s possible, I can make
real.’ The room came to a sudden halt and one side opened. ‘Our stop.’

The journey out didn’t take long. Luna trailed along behind me, shell-shocked, as I strode along the corridors, eagerly laying plans for everything I was going to do once I got outside. Before anything else, I’d visit Morden. I was going to enjoy our next meeting, though I didn’t think he would. After that, I had a score or two to settle with Levistus. Then there were the others …

I was so absorbed I hardly noticed once we reached the exit. ‘Hold up the cube,’ I told Luna.

Luna hesitated, looked around. We were in a small, featureless room. ‘This isn’t the way we came in.’

I felt a flash of annoyance that I had to explain things to her, then smoothed it over. ‘This is the back door. It’ll take us into the countryside.’

Luna hesitated a moment longer, then obeyed, speaking the command words I ordered her to use. The cube lit up and a gateway opened in the wall, carrying with it a breeze that smelt of leaves and grass and cool night air. I stepped before the portal, next to Luna, and looked upwards. For a moment I could see nothing, then I started to make out pinpoints of white light. Gradually the stars took shape before me, and as my eyes adjusted I could see the shape of a hillside, trees silhouetted against the night sky. I stood there for a long moment, drinking in the starlight, basking in the rush of triumph. I’d done it. I’d won.

‘Let’s go, Luna,’ I said. ‘We’ve got a world waiting for us.’

Then suddenly there was a whirlwind in front of me, pushing me away. I jumped back with a curse, bumping into Luna and making her cry out. The whirlwind solidified,
taking the form of a waif-like girl with spiky hair. ‘Don’t!’ Starbreeze said urgently.

‘Starbreeze?’ I recovered my balance. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘Wrong! Don’t go!’

‘You’re in the way.’ I tried to walk forward and again found myself in the middle of a whirlwind of air, driving me back. I came to a stop and looked angrily at her. ‘Starbreeze!’

Starbreeze didn’t move. ‘Can’t go!’

Luna looked at me in puzzlement. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I have no idea,’ I said in exasperation. Starbreeze wasn’t intending any harm, else my precognition would have sensed her, but she wasn’t budging either. ‘You can’t go,’ Starbreeze insisted. ‘Wrong!’

‘Maybe it’s dangerous?’ Luna asked doubtfully.

‘Luna, there’s nothing out there within a hundred miles that’s a danger to me,’ I said impatiently. ‘Starbreeze, get out of the way!’

Starbreeze shook her head again. ‘Wrong.’

I took a threatening step forward. ‘You stupid little—’

‘Wait!’ Luna said urgently, looking between us. She was close enough to Starbreeze to be dangerous, but Starbreeze was focused so desperately on me she didn’t even notice. ‘
What’s
wrong?’ Luna asked Starbreeze. ‘Isn’t this the way out?’

Starbreeze shook her head again. ‘Can’t go.’ She stared at me anxiously. ‘He’s wrong.’

‘This is the way out,’ I said. ‘Starbreeze, move or I’ll make you move.’

‘Wait,’ Luna said. ‘What does she mean?’

‘Who cares?’

‘Wrong,’ Starbreeze said again, insistent.

‘She keeps saying that …’

‘
Who cares?
’ I wanted to get out of this place, walk outside the boundaries of the tomb and taste the night air, wanted it so badly I could taste it. Starbreeze was stopping me, and that was making me angry.

Luna hesitated. ‘Shouldn’t we listen to her?’

‘No!’ I said in frustration. ‘There’s nothing for us to go back for. We are
done
with this place!’

As I spoke, Luna started. ‘Wait!’

I was almost ready to kill Luna. ‘NOW what?’

‘There
is
someone we need to go back for. Sonder!’

I stared at her for a second. ‘Who?’

‘
Sonder!
Alex, you saw him, Griff hurt him, don’t you remember? He must be back in those corridors.’

‘He’s probably dead.’

Luna started as if I’d slapped her. ‘He’s not! He was breathing when Griff took me away. He could still be alive!’

I started to answer and suddenly came to a halt. Luna was right. When I’d last seen Sonder he’d been alive. Griff hadn’t killed the younger mage, he’d only stunned him. So why had I been so sure he was dead?

Luna was looking at me as if waiting for something. ‘What?’ I said at last.

‘Aren’t you going to …?’ Luna said. When I didn’t respond she trailed off.

‘We’ll go back for him later.’ I didn’t want to think about Sonder. I just wanted to get out.

‘He might be dead by then!’

‘Plenty more where he came from.’

Luna started again, her eyes going wide. ‘Why do we
have to deal with this now?’ I said in irritation. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

‘I can’t believe you’re saying this! Alex, you were the one who told him to stay with us!’ Luna was staring at me in shock. ‘What about what you told me? You said that you shouldn’t let someone die if you could help it. I
believed
you.’

‘When did I …?’ I trailed off as I remembered telling Luna that. It had been after we’d helped Cinder and Rachel. Except I didn’t really believe it, it had just been something to say to—

No, it hadn’t just been something to say. I had believed it. I
did
believe it. Luna was right. I couldn’t just leave Sonder back there; I needed to go back and help him.

No, Sonder didn’t matter. What I needed was to get out.

Wait, that was wrong. Leaving Sonder in the middle of that maze would be like killing him.

But I didn’t care about that.

Yes, I did.

I made a noise and turned away, holding a hand to my forehead. I was getting a headache; it felt like there were two voices in my head at once. I paced back and forth between the walls of the tunnel. ‘I don’t know,’ I muttered. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’ I felt I’d be able to think clearly if I only got outside.

‘
No
,’ Starbreeze said urgently to Luna. ‘Wrong.’

‘Shut up,’ I snapped. Their voices were making the headache worse. ‘I don’t—’ I turned and saw that both Starbreeze and Luna were looking at me now, and both had the same strange look on their face. ‘What are you staring at?’

‘Back in the chamber,’ Luna said slowly. ‘You were ready to kill them.’

‘Of course I was!’

‘I’m not sorry about Griff,’ Luna said. Her left hand moved unconsciously to her crippled right side, but she seemed to have forgotten about her broken arm. She was staring at me intently. ‘But I’ve never seen you like that, not until—’ Luna stopped, and something changed in her eyes.

For some reason I felt a sudden stab of fear. I wanted to push past, make a run for the exit, but Luna and Starbreeze were blocking my way now, staring at me. ‘What?’

‘Alex?’ Luna asked, and all of a sudden her voice was very careful. ‘What happened when you picked up that thing?’ She gestured to the wand in my hand.

I opened my mouth to reply, and suddenly everything was silent and I was standing outside my body again. Luna and Starbreeze were looking at where I stood, but I couldn’t hear them any more.

I rolled my eyes. ‘Not you
again
.’

‘Are you going to stand around all day?’ Abithriax demanded, striding into view. He’d appeared right next to me in his red robes, and he looked seriously pissed off.

‘Shut up,’ I muttered. As soon as Abithriax had reappeared, my headache had gotten worse, bad enough that it felt like someone taking a hammer to my skull. Just talking was making me nauseous.

‘Listen, Verus,’ Abithriax said. His voice was on edge, tense. ‘I’ve been sitting listening to this conversation and I’m thoroughly bored with it. Just get us outside and I’ll teach you to help this Sonder boy however you want.’

‘Leave me alone,’ I said through clenched teeth. If only
my head would stop hurting. ‘Why do you care about getting outside anyway?’

Something flickered in Abithriax’s eyes and I stopped. I’d only wanted to shut him up, but that look made me pay attention. I’d stumbled on something Abithriax didn’t want me to know. More than one thing. I shook my head. If only I could think straight.

‘Look,’ Abithriax said carefully. He’d calmed down again and his voice was calm, reasonable. ‘I’ve got nothing against the boy. It just wouldn’t be sensible to go back now. If we can get to somewhere with more facilities, then we can …’

Abithriax kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. I was looking up through the portal at the stars shining down from the night sky. Starlight. What did that remind me of?

‘… more safely,’ Abithriax was saying. ‘In any case—’

‘The greater power for the lesser,’ I said absently.

‘What was that?’

‘Abithriax?’ I said. All of a sudden my headache was gone. I could think clearly again, and all of my attention was focused on the man in front of me. ‘How do you know my name?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘My name,’ I said pleasantly, and I didn’t take my eyes off him.

‘Well – your friend.’

I shook my head slowly. ‘Luna calls me Alex. Not Verus.’

‘One of the others, then.’

‘Which one?’

Abithriax hesitated. Just for a second his eyes shifted, and I saw something behind them, something calculating and cold.

No, it had always been there, I just hadn’t been looking
for it.
‘I’ll open my mind to you, my knowledge and skill will be yours …’
Stupid, stupid, stupid. If I could look into his mind, he could look into mine. Why hadn’t I asked how someone who’d been sealed away two thousand years could speak perfect English?

‘Why do you want to get out of here so badly, Abithriax?’ I kept my voice friendly, but inwardly I was tensing. When I’d merged with Abithriax last time, I’d touched him. He might be a ghost to everyone else, but if I could get close …