Sebastian knocked on the front door and a large man with many muscles answered.
“Hello,” said Sebastian.
“Who are you meant to be?”
“My name is Sebastian. I was wondering if—”
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“It’s fancy dress.”
“Oh.”
“Are you Mr Bicker?”
“Yeah. What do you want?”
“I believe you’ve kidnapped a little girl and I’d like her back, please.”
Bicker’s expression didn’t change. “You think I did that, do you? You think I kidnapped someone?”
“And murdered two people.”
“You think I kidnapped a little girl and murdered two people and you knock on my door and what are you gonna do? You gonna ask for the kidnapped little girl to be returned?”
“Yes.”
“And there’s no one with you,” Bicker said. “You come here instead of going to the City Guard and having them bust my door in. Why haven’t you gone to the cops, you weird little freak, if I’m such a bad and dangerous man? ”
“I’d really prefer if we could resolve this without the authorities knowing about it.”
“Uh-huh. I bet you do. Why is that, though? Is it because the kidnapped little girl is one of the most powerful new sorcerers on the planet?”
“Oh, she’s a lot more than that.”
“You had her. You lost her. We have her. We’re gonna sell her. Do you know that there’s this Crenga out there, and it’s paying all kinds of ridiculous money for mages with rare powers? Dunno what it’s doing with them and I don’t care. But that’s where this little girl is going.”
“Do you have her? I’d like to see her, please.”
Bicker scratched his head. “I don’t get it. I don’t get your whole thing here. You think you can take me down, is that it? You think you can take down me and my friend?”
“Is Mr Gobemouche here also?”
“He is. You’ve been talking to Tantalus, haven’t you? Did you let him out of his basement?”
“No,” said Sebastian. “He’s still there.”
Bicker laughed. “Good. That’s funny. That’s good. Well, you want the little girl? You stay right there and I’ll fetch her for you.”
“I don’t think you will.”
“You stay right there,” Bicker said, and walked back into the house. Sebastian waited until he had disappeared into another room before stepping in after him.
The house was pretty basic. No effort or imagination had gone into the décor. If Sebastian’s mask allowed him to smell, he was pretty sure the place would reek of socks and stale sweat. He took the shock stick from beneath his coat and moved to the wall, right beside the door Bicker had gone through. He waited a moment.
Bicker came back in, holding a pistol, and Sebastian brought the stick down, shattering the bones in his wrist. Bicker roared, stumbling against the doorframe, clutching his arm. Sebastian watched him. Turning the pain into anger, Bicker lunged and Sebastian dodged, tapping the shock stick against his temple. Bicker powered onwards for a few steps and fell, face down and unconscious.
Sebastian waited, listening for running footsteps. Instead, he heard music. He followed it to a door.
He knocked.
“Yeah?” came the voice from inside.
He knocked again.
The music was turned down and then the door opened. A second muscular man – Gobemouche, presumably – frowned at him. “Huh?”
Sebastian kicked Gobemouche in the groin and whacked him over the head with the shock stick. Neither blow particularly bothered the man.
Uh-oh .
Gobemouche took hold of Sebastian’s coat lapels and threw him – he threw him – the entire length of the hall. As Sebastian came to a rolling, sprawling stop on the floor, the thought occurred to him that maybe he should have spent a little longer trying to find out Gobemouche’s discipline.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said as Gobemouche advanced. Gobemouche laughed.
The door to the utility room splintered beautifully under Sebastian’s weight and momentum. He landed on top of the washing machine. As Gobemouche reached for him again, Sebastian kicked out, his two feet slamming into Gobemouche’s face.
Again, no more than a mild flicker of irritation in response.
“I’m here for the girl,” Sebastian said.
“I’ll take you to her,” Gobemouche said, grabbing hold of Sebastian’s ankle and swinging him against the wall. Pain exploded across his shoulder as it crunched, and he fell awkwardly, Gobemouche still gripping him .
Then he was dragged out into the hall, passing his hat along the way. He hadn’t even noticed it come off. He didn’t bother struggling as Gobemouche pushed open a door. Oh, great, another basement . Down they went, each step a new kick in the back, until Gobemouche flung Sebastian across the cold concrete floor.
Darquesse looked down at him. Her wrists were shackled, the chain looped behind a pipe. They did like to shackle people in basements, these guys.
“Hi,” Darquesse said.
“Hey,” he wheezed.
“Have you come to rescue me?”
He nodded.
She looked away. “Oh, good.”
Sebastian stood up, turned to Gobemouche. “OK,” he said, “you probably don’t realise this, but everything’s going according to my plan.”
“That so?”
“I got you to take me down here, didn’t I? So please, make it easy on yourself. Give me the key to the shackles here and then stand aside. I didn’t want to hurt your friend and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You got a lucky shot,” Bicker said, coming down the steps. He held his broken wrist close to his chest. In his other hand, he carried the gun. “Now it’s my turn.”
He went to a bench on the other side of the cellar, started searching clumsily through metal boxes.
“Was it you?” Sebastian asked.
“Was it me what?”
“Did you kill my friends?”
“Yeah,” said Bicker. “That was me.” He found what he was looking for, and popped a dried leaf into his mouth. He closed his eyes, waiting for the pain to subside.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Sebastian said.
“I know,” Bicker replied, his eyes opening slowly. “But what I’ve come to understand – in all my years of involvement in the shadier side of life – is that it’s always better to kill witnesses. Always. Without exception.”
“You didn’t kill Tantalus.”
Bicker laughed. “Tantalus isn’t a witness. He’s a conspirator. You – you’re a witness. So I’m gonna have to kill you.”
“Do you think I came here without backup?” Sebastian asked. “If we don’t walk out of here in the next few minutes, my associates will—”
“Your associates,” Bicker interrupted, sounding confused. “Oh! Oh, you mean those three idiots?”
Beneath his mask, Sebastian paled.
“The three idiots who came in while Gobemouche was kicking the living daylights out of you? The morons who walked right up to me just as I was picking up this gun? Those associates?”
“What did you do with them?”
“They’re upstairs,” said Bicker. “Handcuffed together. I’m sorry, were you actually relying on those losers?”
“Let them go.”
“Well, obviously, I’m gonna kill them. That’s just a given. I mean, what’s the difference between killing one of you, and killing four of you? It’s just numbers by this stage.”
“Can you kill this one now?” Gobemouche pressed. “I need to use the toilet.”
“Right,” Bicker said, “sorry.” He pulled a face at Sebastian. “He’s got a small bladder.”
“Come on!” Gobemouche said. “There’s no need for that! Just kill who you need to kill and get it over with. And I don’t have a small bladder. I have a normal-sized bladder. It’s just a little weak, that’s all, and I’ve been drinking a lot of water lately in an effort to lose weight.”
“Sorry, man,” Bicker said.
“You always do this,” Gobemouche muttered. “You always embarrass me. ”
“I’m sorry, I said.”
“Just kill him, would you?”
“You know what?” Bicker said. “I’m a really bad shot when I use my left hand – I’d probably miss, or shoot him in the leg, and then he’d start screaming and all the blood would get everywhere and … I think you should do it.” He held out the gun.
Gobemouche stared at it. “You serious?”
“Yeah, I’m serious, you big ox.”
“You’d let me kill him?”
“I figure you’ve earned it, don’t you? You’re the one who dragged him down here, after all.”
Gobemouche took the gun. Held it in his hand. “Thank you,” he said softly.
“No big deal.”
“No,” Gobemouche said, “it is a big deal. This isn’t just about a gun. This is about everything. This means everything. So thank you.”
They looked at each other.
“You kill him good,” Bicker said, smiling.
Gobemouche aimed right at Sebastian’s head and Sebastian braced himself and Gobemouche pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again and – again – no bullet.
Sebastian looked at Darquesse.
“Sebastian isn’t my father,” she said, “because I don’t have a father, but he’s the one I picked to raise me. And I don’t like the idea of you shooting him.”
Gobemouche handed the gun back to Bicker. “I think it’s broken.”
“You shouldn’t kill people,” Darquesse continued. “I’ve killed people. I’ve killed lots of people. I didn’t care about the people I killed because to me it was like stepping on grass.”
Bicker frowned at her. “What are you on about?”
“You don’t stop to consider the grass’s feelings. You just step on it. That’s how I feel about killing people. But you … you are people, and even I know that you shouldn’t go around killing other people. It’s wrong.”
Bicker popped out the magazine with some difficulty due to his broken bones, checked it, and then reloaded and handed it back. “Try it now,” he said.
Gobemouche racked the slide and prepared to fire and the gun disappeared. “Uh,” he said. “What?”
The gun reappeared, floating in the air before Darquesse. It turned into a shock stick and drifted over to Sebastian, who took it.
“That’s impossible,” said Bicker, speaking softly. “You’re bound. Your magic is bound.”
“My magic could only be bound if you’d put shackles on me,” Darquesse told him.
“But we did,” said Gobemouche.
“A few years ago, I was all set to destroy the world, and a few people got together and made me see stuff so that I thought I had destroyed the world. That was clever. That was very clever. And that’s what I did to you. You never put those shackles on me. You only thought you did.”
The shackles disappeared and Bicker and Gobemouche stepped back, their hands up.
“How were you going to sell me,” Darquesse asked, “if you didn’t even know who I was?”
“Spare us,” said Bicker.
“Like you spared Tarry? Like you spared Demure?”
“Please …”
Darquesse folded her arms. “Relax. I’m not going to do anything. Sebastian, however, is going to beat you up.”
“I am?” said Sebastian.
She nodded. “But if you can beat up Sebastian, you get to go free.”
“I’ve got an injury,” Bicker said, and gasped. He shook his wrist, a grin spreading across his face .
“You healed him?” Sebastian muttered. “Why did you heal him?”
“It has to be a fair fight,” said Darquesse, “or else it doesn’t count.”
“But two against one isn’t fair.”
“Which is why the shock stick delivers ten times the damage.”
“And we go free?” Bicker said. “We beat him, we go free and you don’t do anything to us?”
“That’s the deal.”
“One at a time,” Gobemouche asked, “or both together?”
Darquesse shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
Sebastian groaned and went to meet them. He gripped the shock stick tighter, and the carvings lit up with energy.
Gobemouche charged and Sebastian dodged left, whipping the stick into his shin. The big man flipped all the way over and crashed to the ground, and Sebastian cracked him over the head and he went rolling into the corner.
Bicker stared. Sebastian stared.
Bicker ripped his shirt open and something pressed against his chest from within – a face, a snarling, snapping face – and Sebastian hurled the shock stick. It hit Bicker between the eyes with a flash of energy and threw him back into the wall. He collapsed, and the gist faded away.
Sebastian took a moment, making sure everyone who was supposed to stay down stayed down, then turned to Darquesse. “You could have saved them,” he said.
She looked puzzled. “They’re still alive.”
“I mean Tarry and Demure. You could have saved them. Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know what was happening until it had happened.”
“With Tarry, fair enough. He answered the door and they shot him. But you heard the gun go off, right? You had plenty of time to stop them from killing Demure.”
“I was in my room. And my magic was bound. ”
“The moment you heard the gunshot you would have known what was happening. You would have sensed how many there were and what they intended to do. At the very least, you would have had time to climb out the window and get your magic back.”
“I was confused. I didn’t know what was—”
“Do you know what I think, Darquesse? I think you were bored and you let it happen to see what they’d do. That’s why you let them kidnap you.” She didn’t say anything to that. “And that’s why you let them kill Demure. Because you don’t care what happens to other people.”
“I stopped them from shooting you.”
“And then you set them on me. I could have been killed.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”
“See, Darquesse, the thing is I don’t know if I believe you.”
She looked away, her lower lip trembling, and then vanished.