She arrested me anyway. Then she kept us in the courtyard as other members of the Ash Guard appeared with various black-cloaked mages in tow. Lowriver’s acolytes, I supposed. I didn’t recognise most of them. There wasn’t much defiance in them, and none of them would meet my eyes. Cowards. You’re lucky the Ash Guard have you. If they had any sense, these mages would plead guilty to absolutely everything and spend the rest of their days safely locked up in Ash Guard cells. The Countess did not take betrayal kindly. I could attest to that.
Sereh joined us at some point, appearing out of the shadows to give me a shock. She was obviously hurt, but she was in a lot better shape than Benny or me. That didn’t stop Benny fussing over her until she finally pushed him off.
Then we were all hauled to the Ash Guard headquarters for a combination of bandaging and interrogation. I told them everything I could that wouldn’t incriminate me, which left quite a lot of holes.
Eventually, though, they let me go with a lecture about all of the crimes I had committed, which weren’t actually any concern of the Ash Guard, and a warning not to do them again. No one mentioned the stolen Ash.
Benny and Sereh were waiting for me outside. Together, we made our way back to Benny’s little house on the edge of the Warrens.
While Sereh disarmed the most deadly of her booby traps, I let myself slump onto a couch. Benny eyed my pile of possessions.
“Moving in, then, are you?”
“I was kind of evicted.”
Benny grunted. “Well, I do owe you.” He glared at me. “But you can’t leave everything a mess. I’ve seen your apartment, remember? And you’re not using this as an office. I’m not having your usual no-goods wandering in here with Sereh around.”
I refrained from pointing out that he was a thief and Sereh had just knifed a powerful mage in the kidney.
“And we’re going half and half with the food, so you’d better do some of the shopping.”
I threw up my hands in surrender. “I’m going to bed.”
I slept the rest of the night and most of the next day. My body was a ruin, and it needed the sleep to heal itself. When I awoke, I felt even more tired than when I’d gone to bed. The process by which a mage’s body repaired itself using raw magic was always exhausting, and I had needed a Depths of a lot of repairing. I still ached, but at least I didn’t feel like I was about to fall down dead.
Benny and Sereh seemed to be out, so I placed a ward on the building that would only let the three of us through. Any competent mage would be able to break it, but at least it would give me warning. I would do a proper job later, maybe ask Mica to put in something with a bit more kick when she got back from chasing Lowriver’s false trails. But first I had something else to do.
Imela Rush’s family didn’t live far from here. The mourning banners had been removed from the big, neat house on Long Step Avenue, which meant they had buried their daughter, probably in the burial shafts above the Warrens, not far from the Lady’s cedar grove. As a Master Servant, she could have had a place in the Silkstar family tombs in the Fields of the Dead, to the west of the Upper City, but I didn’t think her parents would even consider that. The Warrens run deep.
I paused outside their front door, gripped by the same reluctance to intrude that had made me hesitate before. I wouldn’t be welcome. I would just be another jab in an open wound. But they deserved to know the truth, and I had promised them. Turning away now would be cowardice.
I hadn’t worn my mage’s cloak this time, but Rush’s mother let me in anyway, wordlessly taking me through to their living room at the back of the house. Rush’s father was there, and if anything, he looked more gaunt than before. The whole big house seemed empty and hollow.
Imela Rush’s brothers weren’t here, and for that I was selfishly grateful. I didn’t want to have to deal with an angry, hurt apprentice mage again.
I explained everything I could about what had happened, and then I left. I hadn’t brought them comfort, but maybe in the end it would help to have answers to some of their questions. Maybe not.
Captain Gale was waiting outside Benny’s house when I got back. She had buggered my wards with her Ash already. She wasn’t wearing it smeared on her skin, but one of her hands rested firmly on a pouch at her waist.
“That’s not very trusting,” I said. “Are you here to arrest me again?”
She didn’t smile. “I could, you know. You’re a disaster. You crash around, breaking stuff and causing trouble.”
“But?”
She looked like she had swallowed a worm. “But the official position of the Ash Guard is that you’re useful out here. For now. Trouble finds you like flies find shit.” She could have chosen a more complementary comparison. “And when it does,” she continued, “you’re going to report it to us so we can deal with it properly.”
“You want me to squeal?”
“Don’t be childish. I want you to help avoid another situation like this. You’ve put the whole city in a dangerous place.”
“Me?” That was a bit unfair. I had just been trying to stay alive, and the Ash Guard had been intent on pinning everything on me.
“Have you ever heard of the rule of three?”
I shook my head.
“There’s a reason why Agatos has always had three high mages. It’s about balance. None of them dares to make too big of a move, because they know the other two will resist them and they’ll lose. Two against one never plays out nicely. They stick with their domains and enjoy their games, but they keep the balance.”
“I thought that was the job of you guys,” I said.
Captain Gale sighed. “The Ash Guard is the sledgehammer. You don’t use a sledgehammer to balance things. You use it to smash shit.”
“And now there are just two high mages.”
“Yep. And both of them have enough of an ego to start eyeing each other’s territory. Things could get exciting out there.”
As she turned away, I called out after her, “I’m sorry.” For betraying her trust, for stealing her Ash, for lying to her. Depths, I didn’t even know what else.
She looked back, then shook her head. “It’s not enough.”
Benny and Sereh arrived back about an hour later, carrying food in wicker baskets. Benny headed for the small kitchen, while Sereh let herself out into the courtyard. I followed Benny to the kitchen.
“Want some help with the cooking?”
He glanced at me. “Mate, when I want food poisoning, I’ll let you know.”
I was about to tell Benny how insulted I was, even though he had tasted my cooking before and had a point, when someone knocked on the door.
“Get that, will you?”
I wandered over. I couldn’t deny that I felt a twinge of nerves as I pulled it open, even though Lowriver was dead and I had repaired the wards. There were still people out there who would be pissed off at me.
There was no one waiting outside, and although I glanced up and down the street, I couldn’t tell which of the passers-by had knocked.
Whoever it was had left a package on the doorstep covered in a cloth. There was nothing magical about it — no ward, no curse, no booby trap — so I lifted it and carried it inside. It was light, but oddly balanced.
I set it on a table and pulled off the cloth.
It was a birdcage. Inside, a single, tiny brown bird with a rounded body and a short, upright tail hopped and fluttered from perch to perch.
Depths! My mouth was suddenly dry.
“That’s a wren,” Benny said from behind me. “Mate…”
“Yeah,” I said.
The Wren was telling me I was out of time. The next visitor wouldn’t be a bird.
All right. It’s all right.
I forced calm into my voice. “The Wren is calling in his debt,” I said. I took a deep breath. “Benny, my friend, it looks like I’m going back home.”
- End -
Continue reading Nik’s adventures in Nectar for the God, out now.