Author: Benedict Jacka
Category: Science
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“Hypothetically, could he have opened a gate in that period?”
Sonder paused. “To outside the bubble realm?”
“Yes.”
“Um . . . ,” Sonder said. “No.”
“I’m sorry?”
“There’s no possible way he could have done that.”
A stir went through the courtroom. “Didn’t you just say that you weren’t able to view the interview room?” the coroner said.
“Yes.”
“Then how can you say what did or didn’t happen inside it?”
“Because gate magic creates a signature in a wide spatio-temporal radius,” Sonder said. “I couldn’t view the interview room, but I could view the corridor it opened into, and I checked it thoroughly. So did the other two time mages brought in. We all came to the same conclusion. There’s no possible way a gate could have been opened from there.”
I heard some whispers from behind. Without turning my head, I could see Solace staring at Sonder; she looked pissed off. I guess she hadn’t seen this one coming. Then again, until only a little while ago, neither had I.
“Were you able to detect gate magic signatures from anywhere else during that period?”
“No.”
“Then do you have any other explanation for how Vihaela was able to reach Morden’s cell?”
“At the moment, our working theory is that she entered it from the outside,” Sonder said. “Somehow she was able to travel through the void surrounding the facility. Unfortunately she was using a shroud effect with sufficient power that it wasn’t possible to view her directly.”
There was a pause. I felt the coroner’s eyes flick to me, and I knew what he was thinking. If they couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation as to how I could have let “Vihaela” in, any case against me would fall apart.
The coroner cleared his throat. “Thank you, Mage Sonder. No further questions.”
Sonder nodded, glanced at me, and left. “The court will now consider the evidence,” the coroner announced.
The murmur of conversations started up around the room. The coroner was conferring with the clerks, while off to one side Solace and Barrayar were having a whispered conversation. I couldn’t make out their words, but from their body language Solace looked angry. The conversation that really mattered, though, was one I couldn’t hear at all. The three Senior Council members at the back table had their heads together and were talking, their voices silenced by a magical barrier.
The Council members sitting at the table were Sal Sarque, Druss the Red, and Alma. Druss I wasn’t worried about: he was generally an ally of mine these days. Alma was a question mark. She’s an ally of Levistus, another member of the Senior Council, and Levistus is one of my oldest and bitterest enemies. On the other hand, Alma’s pragmatic, and if she didn’t think this case had a good enough chance of success, she’d vote to drop it. She would be the swing vote.
The third person sitting at that table was more of a problem. His name was Sal Sarque, a dark-skinned unsmiling man with close-cut white hair and a scar running the length of his scalp. He’s the de facto leader of the Crusader faction among the Light mages, and as far as he and his faction are concerned, the only good Dark mage is a dead one. He’d taken Morden’s appointment to the Council as a personal insult, and though I couldn’t prove it, I was pretty sure he’d been the one who’d given the order for Anne and me to be kidnapped and tortured. The fact that his previous aide ended up dead in the process had made things worse, if possible, and given the choice, I was pretty sure that he’d rather cut out the bother of a trial and just have me straight-up killed.
But, for now at least, Sal Sarque was too busy with the war to waste resources sending assassins, which meant all I had to worry about was the political sphere. The futures were shifting too much for me to predict the decision, but I was pretty sure this case wasn’t making it to trial. Which was good, because while Solace’s claims that I’d gated in Vihaela were complete bullshit, what I had done was arguably worse. It’s like the police investigating you for drug dealing when you’ve got a dead body in the basement. Sure, they might be on the wrong track, but if one person goes looking in the wrong place . . .
I’d done what I could to misdirect their attention. There was a reason that Anne wasn’t in court today, and in fact wasn’t in the War Rooms at all—I’d subtly nudged things so that the bulk of the attention would fall on me. I’d vehemently denied the gating-Vihaela charge, forcing them to focus on it. So far it was working, but I’d spent sleepless nights imagining one nightmare scenario after another. None of them had happened . . . yet.
The argument at the Senior Council table was still going. Sal Sarque looked angry, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. At last Alma held up her hand, and Sarque fell silent, glowering. Alma glanced towards the bench and the coroner walked over immediately. He listened as Alma spoke, then nodded and returned to his chair.
“All rise,” the bench clerk instructed.
I stood. Over to my side, Barrayar and Solace did the same.
“The full verdict of this court will be contingent on the conclusions delivered in the official report,” the coroner said. “However, the preliminary finding is that while various irregularities have been brought to light, there is insufficient evidence to issue an indictment against any of the inquiry subjects for breach of the Concord or any other capital offence. As such, pending the official report, no further action will be taken. This court is adjourned.”
Murmurs spread throughout the courtroom as conversations started up. At the back, the three Senior Council members rose to their feet and left through a private door. From his body language, I could tell Sal Sarque was pissed off, and Solace didn’t look happy either. Barrayar looked calm as always, and as I watched he picked up his notes, tapped them to the table to bring them in line, and left.
A couple of mages came to speak to me; one was a Keeper from the Order of the Star, the other a member of the bureaucracy whom I vaguely knew. They said various polite nothings and I responded in kind. There was a dark humour to it. When I’d walked into the courtroom this morning, no one had been willing to even meet my eyes. Now that the verdict was in, all of a sudden I was a person again. I ended the conversation as soon as I could, and walked over to the Keeper who hadn’t come over.
Caldera glanced up as I approached, then looked back down at her papers. She’s a woman of forty or so with a round face, red cheeks, and a heavyset build with arms thick enough for a nightclub bouncer. She’s a journeyman Keeper of the Order of the Star, and she’s been a journeyman for a very long time. It’s not because she’s bad at her job, or at least not at what her job’s supposed to be. But when it comes to climbing the Council hierarchy, it’s not what you do, it’s who you know. I’d joined the Keepers only a few years ago, and in that time I’d gone from Caldera’s subordinate, to the same rank, to being promoted way over her head. Caldera had never brought up the subject, but I was pretty sure she resented it, and it wasn’t the only grudge she was holding.
“You didn’t give evidence,” I said to Caldera.
“Wasn’t called.”
“I guess they thought your report was so thorough there wasn’t anything to add?”
Caldera shrugged.
I sighed. “How long are we going to keep doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“For two and a half years now you haven’t said a single word to me except when I ask you a question or the job demands it. It’s getting ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
“Can you maybe look at me when we’re talking?”
Caldera finally raised her eyes. “Okay. What do you want to talk about?”
“Well, I wanted to talk about that fight we had at Canary Wharf, but it’s pretty clear that’s never going to happen, so I’ve written that off as a bad job. Right now I’m just shooting for ba
sic communication.”
“About?”
“How about the inquiry we just had? You have a problem with what I did? Are you pissed that I left you with Solace and Barrayar? Do you not care? What?”
Caldera shrugged.
“You don’t care?”
“You ran and left us holding the bag,” Caldera said. “Same as usual.”
“Oh, come on.”
“Way I remember it, pretty much every time I’ve fought with you, I end up getting the shit kicked out of me while you stay way back out of reach.”
I bit back an angry reply. What Caldera was saying was both true and blatantly unfair, given that she’s an earth mage who can literally shrug off bullets. “So is this it?” I said. “This is how all our conversations are going to go? You avoid me until I corner you, then you make passive-aggressive comments until I go away?”
Caldera studied me. “Where did you really go after that fight, Alex?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Caldera said. “I know a bullshit story when I hear one.”
“It wasn’t bullshit.”
“Oh? You were telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”
“No one in this room was telling the truth,” I said. “You think this inquiry was commissioned because they wanted to know what happened? You think Barrayar and Solace were just being honest? It pisses me off the way you do this. They’ve been doing this shit for years, manipulating the system to try to get me, but when I play the same game back, oh, that’s terrible.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if you were a little straighter, you wouldn’t have to play games at all,” Caldera said. “I’m done going to bat for you. You want to keep trying to prove how you’re smarter than everyone else, you go right ahead.”
“You know what?” I said. “Screw you and your self-righteousness. I’ve been trying to make things up with you for years and you’ve brushed me off every time. Levistus and Barrayar and their team of psychopaths chased us literally to the other side of the world all for the sake of a grudge, and when that didn’t work, they planted bombs in Luna’s flat. You didn’t do shit to stop them, but hey, better blame me, right? Because otherwise you might have to admit to yourself that the guys you’re working for are just as bad as the ones you arrest every day.”
I turned on my heel and left before Caldera could answer. I could feel people watching me as I headed for the door, and that pissed me off further. I was tired of the looks, tired of the silent judgements, and tired of the Council in general. I left the court resisting the urge to bang the door behind me.
* * *
I took a roundabout route out of the War Rooms to give myself time to cool off. Walking gave me time to think, and as I did I realised why Caldera’s words had made me so angry. While Caldera has her flaws, she’s honest, and back when we’d worked together, we’d always been straight with each other. Nowadays I couldn’t do that. Dealing with the Council, I had to lie and evade all the damn time, and it was making me wonder if I was turning into the sort of person I’d always tried to avoid.
I ran into Sonder at the far side of the conservatory. He was talking to Captain Rain, an officer in the Order of the Star and my old boss. “. . . shouldn’t need you on Tuesday, but this one’s urgent,” Rain was saying. “We need it ASAP.”
“I’m snowed under with timesight cases that people want ASAP,” Sonder said. “I’ll try, but no promises.”
Rain nodded. “Whatever you can.” He glanced in my direction. “I’d better be going.” He gave me a nod and left.
Sonder turned in the direction Rain had and saw me. He didn’t look pleased but he didn’t run away. “Hey,” I said as I walked up.
“Hey.”
“Anything on our request for a scan of that facility?”
Sonder shook his head. “I just don’t have the hours. Maybe in a week or so, but . . .”
“We’re almost sure it was Crystal,” I said. “She’s still on the most-wanted list.”
“Every Dark mage linked to Richard Drakh is on the most-wanted list,” Sonder said. “You know how many of these requests I’m getting?”
You have the time to show up to inquiries, I wanted to say, but knew it was unfair. Sonder’s a rising star in the Council, but he’s not at the top yet. If they tell him to jump, he jumps. “Thanks for today.”
“For what?”
“The report you gave.”
Sonder shrugged. “I was just telling the truth.”
“That’s not always the most common commodity in this business.”
“I suppose,” Sonder said. “I’m guessing there’s something you wanted to talk about.”
I wanted to sigh. First Caldera, now Sonder. “Actually, I wanted to ask your advice.”
“Uh . . . okay.”
I started walking along the corridor, and after a moment’s pause, Sonder matched me. “Remember six years back, with that business in Fountain Reach?” I said. “You dug up some information on Jagadev. Specifically, his history with Variam and Anne.”
Sonder looked startled. “Oh. I did, didn’t I?”
“Have you told anyone else?”
Sonder shook his head. “To be honest, I’d forgotten about it.”
“I haven’t,” I said. “Do you think we should change that? Specifically, telling them?”
“Why?”
“It does kind of concern them.”
“Well, yes,” Sonder said. “I meant, why now?”
“I suppose I’m starting to feel as though the reasons to keep it a secret don’t really apply anymore.”
“I guess.”
“You sound doubtful.”
“Is this really the best time?” Sonder asked. “With the war on?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m not sure there ever will be a good time.” Sonder still didn’t seem convinced and I gave him a quizzical look. “Back then, you didn’t like the idea of keeping it a secret at all. You said that it was the truth and they ought to know.”
“I did?”
I nodded.
“Wow,” Sonder said. “I guess it really was a long time.”
“So you’d rather keep it quiet?”
“I don’t know,” Sonder said. “Is there really any point digging it up?”
“Let sleeping dogs lie?”
“More or less,” Sonder said. We’d made a circuit around the corridors, all the way back to where we’d started. He pulled out his phone and glanced at it. “I’ve got to go. I’m late for a meeting.”
“Okay.”
Sonder walked out, leaving me alone in the conservatory, and I watched him go. I thought about Sonder as I’d known him back then, earnest and apprehensive. He’d come across as naive, but he’d also been the kind to value honesty above everything else. I was pretty sure that if I’d asked him the same question back then, he’d have told me to tell the truth. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who’d changed.
There was another bit of information too. When Sonder had taken out his phone, I’d looked into the futures in which I’d snatched it out of his hands. Diviners have a lot of ways of spying on people; it’s something I avoid doing with my friends, but as I said, Sonder and I aren’t really friends anymore. The message hadn’t been about a meeting: it had been a request for scheduling a follow-up scan on San Vittore. Which meant this wasn’t over.
I sighed and turned to leave. Fighting summoned jinn was easier than this.
chapter 4
My talk with Sonder had left me wary, and I spent the next week putting out feelers, looking for signs of trouble. But for once, I didn’t find it. Rain told me that they’d dropped the case, and my other contacts confirmed that the Order of the Star was no longer investigating me or Anne. Sal Sarque still hated me, and Levistus still hated me, but the very next day after the inquir
y, reports came in of Richard recruiting and training adepts in an organised force, and the Council met to discuss their response, and all of a sudden no one was talking about what had happened in San Vittore.
* * *
It was a weekday evening in Arachne’s lair, and Arachne and I were alone. Once upon a time it would have been common for all four of us to meet here, but now Variam was busy with his duties as a Keeper, and Luna spent mornings and afternoons at the shop. Anne still came from time to time, but most often, these days, when I saw Arachne, it would be just the two of us, me on one of her sofas and her crouched over a table working over some dress or other article of clothing. It reminded me of the old days, when Arachne was my only real friend.
“. . . so they haven’t made any progress towards locating Richard’s base, or this adept training camp either,” I was saying. “The war seems to be in another of its lulls.”
“Hmm,” Arachne said. “From past experience those tend to end quite abruptly.”
“It’s figuring out when that’s the hard part.”
Arachne is a giant spider, large enough to tower over any human, with eight long legs, eight eyes of varying sizes, and thick black hair highlighted in cobalt blue. She looks absolutely terrifying, and most people would expect her lair to be a dark cave with webs holding the decaying bodies of her victims. They’re right about the cave part, but the fact that it’s brightly lit, furnished as a very comfortable living room, and covered in drapes, tapestries, silks, bolts of cloth, and clothing makes it a bit less intimidating. Even so, one look at Arachne would still be enough to make most people run screaming.
Arachne made a tsking sound. “You know, I’ve been working on this style for so many years and I still can’t get it right. It’s such a simple thing but for some reason it’s never quite satisfactory. I really thought I’d get the hang of it someday.”
I looked curiously at Arachne. It was an odd thing for her to say, as much for the reference to her age as anything else. Arachne is very old—if I had to guess, I’d put her at two thousand years plus—but she doesn’t talk about her past.