18

“You kneeled in reverence before another god,” said the Clockwork Man, disapprovingly. His most devout tutted as he poured two cups of tea.

“Shut up, Campbell,” I said. “Yeah, I did. She’s a massive unicorn who could have skewered me right through. Which she did, incidentally.”

“You can understand why I might be a little upset that my Champion is bowing before other gods, surely.”

“I would like to make one thing clear,” I said. “Last time I was here you made out that we were partners. I respect you, I appreciate your blessings and I’m even a little in awe of you, but you are the god I work with. You are not my god. I am not your follower.”

Campbell dropped a sugar lump in shock and caused my tea to spill; I tutted, loudly.

“You prayed to me.”

“It’s the only thing I knew would get your attention,” I said, with the smallest ember of satisfaction. “I don’t follow anyone. Just another atheist.”

The Clockwork Man frowned. “How can you not believe in gods when you have witnessed them first-hand?” he asked. “You know they exist.”

“Yeah, well, I know the Prime Minister exists, but I don’t believe in him.” I tried to change the subject. “Where is she?”

“Oh, I think you know where she is,” the Clockwork Man said, casually. “She remains at the leisure of the beast. I must say, the earthquake was impressive. Wherever did you learn that?”

“From the earth itself, I think. It’s difficult to explain.” What had seemed so clear and simple as unfamiliar currents fuelled me was now murky and far away. “Thanks, by the way. For helping me with the time.”

“Yes, I shall be making that up in travel delays for the foreseeable future. Be wary, Rudy,” the god warned. “Wild magic is just that; wild.”

“I’ve seen enough of the city to know it’s not exactly safe either,” I said. “I think I need to learn what else I can do. I’m not going anywhere, but it can’t hurt to broaden my horizons a little.”

The Clockwork Man focused his attention on his tablet.

“It’s still all over the news,” he said, disapprovingly. “You rather put paid to subtlety when you gave Glasgow its strongest earthquake in recorded history, wouldn’t you say? I’d advise you to keep a low profile, for a while at least.”

“Duly noted. Well, if that’s everything?”

“I’m afraid not. There is someone here who would very much like to meet you.”

“Meet me? Who?” I asked, dreading the worst.

“Please, be polite,” warned my host. “Campbell, if you would?”

Campbell disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a woman who radiated power like heat from a flame. Before I could even register her appearance, I found myself standing with my hand outstretched, as if puppeted by invisible strings.

“Rudy Renfrew,” said the Clockwork Man. “May I introduce you to Amelia Bracken, of the Three.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” I lied.

“Likewise,” said Amelia, smiling sweetly. “Please, sit.”

I did so, of my own accord this time.

“Well, I shall leave you to get acquainted,” said our host. Was the Clockwork Man uneasy?

Once I was alone with someone I had hoped never to meet, I was able to take her in with greater attention. If not for the evident potency, I wouldn’t have pegged her as a mage; she wore a fuzzy purple jumper and glasses on a crystal chain. Her mousey hair was cut into a sensible bob.

“We’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Rudy,” said Amelia, kindly. “You have certainly been making a name for yourself lately.”

She spoke with a drooping lilt and I wanted to place her from somewhere around Birmingham.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll do my best to keep my name-making to a minimum from now on.”

“Oh, not at all! It’s been fascinating to watch you grow these past years. Lately, though, we have had a little more to watch, haven’t we?”

“Thank you, I think?”

“You are most welcome.” Her smile was beginning to unnerve me. It felt like a wild animal baring its teeth. “We were, however, disappointed to not receive a reply to our gracious invitation.”

“Oh right, that,” I said, hurriedly. “Sorry. I’ve been pretty busy lately. The Clockwork Man has been sending me off on missions and I was a little preoccupied with a missing young woman.”

“Ah, yes, Miss Baxter. How is she?”

“Pretty bad, but I guess you already knew that.”

“We are aware, yes,” said Amelia, with a little less concern than I would have liked. “Perhaps you would care to fill me in on your side of events? Obviously we have a rough idea of how events played out, but to hear it in your words could prove helpful.”

Wanting this to be over as quickly as possible, I gave Amelia bullet-point list of my escapades, leaving out the unicorn and the community as best as I could, focussing more on Rachel and her dealings.

“Feeding from the life force of her own daughter. Ingenious,” said Amelia, with a hint of what sounded like admiration. That stoked my ire and before I could stop myself, I snapped back.

“You know, you could have stepped in at any time. I thought you were supposed to keep the peace but there Rachel was, taking over my city, one curse at a time. Where were you?”

Amelia removed her glasses, folded the arms and let them bounce gently against her chest.

“Young man, unlike yourself, we are not limited to Glasgow. We have a much wider net to cast.” She beamed at me. “I’m sure you understand, Steven.”

She might as well have slashed my throat.

“That man is dead,” I said quickly. “I made sure that name would never be used again.”

“Come now,” Amelia chastised. “You more than anyone should know that the dead leave ghosts. It is our business to know the ins and outs of practitioners across Britain. And yes, we knew about Rachel Baxter and her actions; our eyes were fixed on her and we had plans to neutralise the situation had she pushed much further. But of course, now the issue has been resolved. In quite a spectacular fashion, I might add.”

I couldn’t even take the compliment. I had discarded that name nearly a decade ago and had wrapped it in so much magic that none should have been able to find it. Her use of it was a threat, plain and simple.

“Who else knows that name?” I asked.

“Only us,” assured Amelia. “And we fully intend to keep it that way. Call it our collateral, if you will. We are not here to be your enemies, Rudy. We wish you no ill will, and we look forward to a wonderful partnership. But please remember that we will always be watching, and should you prove… problematic, we will be forced to step in.”

Again, I began to snap back but caught myself; if they had found that name, I didn’t want to think what else they could do.

“So, without wanting to be rude,” I ventured. “Why are you here? To invite me to breakfast in person?”

“Partially,” said Amelia, with a nod. “But also to issue a warning. Rachel Baxter was not exaggerating about how far her reach extended. Her influence will be missed and thanks to your removal of her, there is now a power vacuum in the mundane world that will need to be filled.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Dogs pull at their leads and if those leads are cut then the dogs wander into traffic. We don’t only deal with mages, Rudy. When the need arises, we step in to deal with some of the issues of the mortal world.”

Don’t think that her use of ‘mortal’ escaped me, though I said nothing.

“Isn’t one of your rules to not get too involved?” I asked.

Amelia pulled a glass tumbler from the air, its contents fizzing around a slice of lemon. “One rule for thee, another for the Three. It is not a regular practice, you understand, but please be aware that Glasgow may need us to step in at times.” She threw back the drink and let the empty glass go back to wherever it had come from. “And other times, we may rely on you to step in for us.”

I shook my head. “That’s not my area.”

“No? Perhaps Linda MacDonald and her husband would care to differ. I told you,” she said, clearly pleased at my shock. “We watch. Now, if you don’t mind, I must be going. When should I tell my colleagues that you will be joining us for breakfast?”

We set a date, reluctantly on my part, and once we had shaken hands she made her way back into the Clockwork Man’s house. The god returned a few seconds later.

“Well, how was that?” he asked. I didn’t respond, choosing instead to raise my eyebrows and exhale through my teeth. The god nodded sympathetically. “I know, she does tend to have that effect. Anyway, if that will be all, please don’t let me keep you.”

I took my leave and walked down the garden path to the ever-clean station. I had no fixed destination in mind and mainly I just wanted to ruminate, so I rode the inner circle for a few spins before making my way into the centre of town.

The job was done, the case was closed, my bank account had another half ton resting in it until rent was due. So where had that job satisfaction gone? Leigh-Anne was safe, albeit worse off than when I had set out to look for her. Rachel was gone, lost to places unknown, though her damage had apparently left holes to be filled. There was still the subject of the phantom dark mage who enjoyed putting curses on people. I didn’t think that Rachel had been the one responsible for Hannah’s affliction; she had seemed genuinely confused when I mentioned it.

And on top of the news that I was to be the Clockwork Man’s champion, and the Unicorn’s… something, I now had the Three to worry about, no longer just a word in my ear but flesh and blood and arrogance. And they knew my gods damn name. My birth name, I quickly corrected myself. And that put me entirely under their power. There were too many unsatisfying endings and loose threads. But that’s life; it’s not a story.

I found myself in the wynd that led to Moti’s bar and popped my head in; he was bent over the bar, lost in something on a clipboard. He looked up as I sat down on a stool.

“Hey stranger,” he said. “You never called. Again.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. You wouldn’t believe the night I had after I left you. I’ve been recovering. Any chance of a pint?” I asked.

“How about I take my lunch break and we go eat?”

“Well, now that you’ve twisted my arm…”

Not wanting to waste any of Moti’s precious free time, we went to the café we had visited previously; the bundle still sat by the till, as clear as the day it had blown my investigation wide open. Moti ordered our food and sat down.

“So, to what do I owe this visit?” he asked. “You’re making a habit of just dropping in on me when I’m not expecting it.”

“I needed to talk to you,” I said. It was true, though I hadn’t realised it until now.

“About?”

“Dating. Going on spontaneous lunch dates.”

Moti looked suddenly nervous. “Are you about to tell me that you don’t like boys, or something?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s…” I took in a deep breath. “I had a partner. We’d been together since my last year of uni. His name was Jason. He was like me.”

“A warlock?”

“Well, yeah, though he preferred magician. But that’s not what I meant. Anyway, he found me and took me in, pulled me off the streets when he found out that’s where I was. What I do now, it was his gig first and he was twice the mage I could ever hope to be. But he could never tune out the chaos like I can. This city is alive, Moti. It lives and it breathes, and it feeds. And beneath it all, the beating heart of the beast below. I can’t stress how easy it is to lose yourself in the rage and mayhem around you. We did well, for a few years. We worked together and I learned more from him than I ever would have from the scraps I’d found on my own. Till one night, I wake up and he’s nowhere to be found. I assumed he’d been called out on a job, till the morning and I couldn’t reach him. Then things fell apart pretty quickly.

“It didn’t take long to find him, but by the time they did, he was gone.”

“Shit, Rudy, I’m so sorry,” said Moti, looking as if he was going to put a hand over mine but deciding against it. I was grateful.

“Thanks. I never truly got an answer as to why he did it, but I have my suspicions. I’d noticed him getting smaller and further away, and I think I know now what was wrong, what he was hearing. Since then, I’ve been interested in a few guys and girls, but I’ve never pursued any of them. Yeah, girls too,” I added, off Moti’s look. “I’ve never had an issue between guys or girls or anyone who falls anywhere on the spectrum. It’s never bothered me what bodies people were born in, Moti, because…”

I drew in a deep breath, my mouth suddenly dry.

“Because I don’t like sex. I’ve never found the thought of it appealing in any way. Jason was the same. I think that’s one of the reasons we stayed so strong; neither of us wanted any more than we were getting.”

Moti didn’t reply right away, and I wondered if he was going to react badly; despite being in the same trench, I’ve known queer people just as unaccepting of asexuality as straight people.

“Thanks for telling me,” he said eventually. “I really appreciate it.”

“So, I wanted to tell you that now,” I said, quickly. “Because I enjoy your company and you’re pretty cool, but I didn’t want to lead you on only to disappoint you later.”

A soft smile played on Moti’s lips. “You understand how exciting you are, aye? Your stories. Look, let’s eat and you can fill me in on your adventures. We can talk about everything else later.”

Once again, I entertained my audience with my journey, enjoying his animation as I detailed my battles and once again getting the best reaction when I mentioned the Unicorn.

“Wait, so is that why the Unicorn is our national animal?” asked Moti.

“Actually, I think it’s the other way round. But that’s just one aspect of her, she could be anything she wanted.”

“You live a weird life, you know that?”

“I do,” I said, nodding. “I’ve been wondering how different it could have turned out if I’d never picked up magic and focused on academia instead.”

“That’s not you,” said Moti. “I think you’d die of boredom.”

He was right, I knew. For all my moaning and being thrown great distances by things more powerful than me, I did have more fun than I would have had sitting in a cramped office, marking essays and snapping at students.

Moti paid this time, and we walked back through the windy street. I turned my collar up against the chill.

“I like the coat,” said Moti. “I think if you’d been wearing that when you told me you were a Curse-Breaker I might have taken you more seriously.”

“Please never let Tara hear you say that.” I turned to him. “I’d like to hang out again, maybe for longer than it takes to eat a sandwich. But I’d understand if you feel like it would be a waste of your time.”

“Stop that,” said Moti, sternly. “Yeah, I enjoy sex, but that doesn’t mean it’s all I think about. This is new for me, sure, but I’m willing to give it a go if it means getting to see more of you.”

“Aye?”

“Aye.”

I grinned what felt like my first proper grin in days. “Well then. I have your number and you have my card. I’m sure one of us will call the other soon enough. For now, I’ll let you get back to work.”

“I guess a quick kiss on the cheek wouldn’t be appropriate?”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t.”

There was a short pause before Moti reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “How about that?”

“Acceptable,” I said with a smile.

I still didn’t want to go home, I realised as I walked back into the busy street. Normally I would go to the river to think, but today I wanted to avoid it. So, I walked without destination, shoulder to shoulder with the single-minded entity that shuffled past on a thousand feet, my ghosts hanging back enough to give me the illusion of independence. My thoughts wandered to what Rachel had said to me, about how I walked in both worlds but belonged to neither. It had shaken me for a few days, I couldn’t deny, but I had decided it didn’t matter. So what if I didn’t belong in the world of bills and taxes and rent; I still paid them, mostly. And what did it matter if I didn’t truly belong to the peripheries; I made my presence known there too and clearly my actions weren’t going unnoticed. What really counted was that I belonged to the city.

And the city belonged to me.