Finally, I did manage to throw up again. I fell forwards onto my hands and retched over and over again, until my stomach couldn’t convulse again. I didn’t dare try to stand, because I knew I would fall again. I just knelt there on all fours staring at the pool of blood and the bile that I had vomited into it.
How had this happened? The spell had been confined to the room. Surely I couldn’t have diverted it out here with my hastily-raised shield. Could I? Maybe this was what was supposed to happen to me when I triggered the booby trap. My stomach heaved again.
“Denna’s mercy,” I heard Benny whisper.
A pair of worn boots appeared in front of me. The captain of the Ash Guard reached down, grabbed my hair, and dragged my head up. I stared into her scarred, Ash-coated face.
“Explain this,” she said.
Explain this.
How in all the Depths was I supposed to explain it? I could have practised magic my whole life and not been able to do this much damage. It couldn’t have been the booby trap, either. There would have been damage to the walls of Silkstar’s office, or to the desk or the ceiling or somewhere else.
“She was attacked,” I said, knowing how ridiculous I sounded. My voice was dry, and it hurt to speak. I could still feel the acid burn in the back of my mouth and my throat. “Soldiers. Assassin.”
The captain let go of my hair. I almost fell flat, then forced myself up, swaying.
“Four simultaneous, parallel cuts,” the captain said. “And ragged. Not swords or a knife.”
I glanced around. Benny had retreated as far as his Guards would allow him. His usually olive skin looked drained, and his eyes were wide.
“What, then?” I croaked.
“If you had to press me,” the captain said, thoughtfully, “I’d have to say claws.”
I wet my lips. “A … giant bear?” I felt stupid saying it.
She snorted. “Did you happen to pass any giant bears on your way in? With paws the size of a man? No. The only thing that causes an injury like that is magic.”
At the word ‘magic’ all of the Ash Guard seemed to lean forwards restlessly, almost eagerly. I saw fingers subconsciously rub against Ash.
At least now I knew why the Ash Guard were here. Magical murder was their domain, and clearly I was their prime suspect.
Chapter Four
The city of Agatos sat at the southern end of the Erastes Valley, where the valley narrowed to no more than a couple of miles across before opening onto the Yttradian Sea.
To the west and east of Agatos, the hills rose quickly to steep, jagged mountains that buttressed the sea with sheer cliffs. It was cosy, in a kind of rocky way. In the west of the city, a precipitous ridge of rock, called Giuffria’s Spear (or, in parts of the Warrens where they were always impressed by their own sense of humour, Giuffria’s Cock) jutted from the mountains into the body of the city, effectively cutting off the southern, ocean-facing part of the western city from the northern, valley-facing part. The Ash Guard fortress sat hard against the end of the ridge. It was an old building, far older than the Senate and the palaces on Horn Hill, dating back to the days when Agatos was still a contested city. Unlike the rest of the city, it was not whitewashed. It crouched like a belligerent stone toad, letting the rest of the city know exactly what it thought of it. I had never been inside — like most mages, I kept as far away as possible — but behind its four-storey bulk, I suspected it stretched deep back into the rock of the ridge.
Where they put mages they don’t intend to let out again. I shuddered.
The Ash Guard didn’t tie my hands or blindfold me. They simply closed around me as they marched me from Thousand Walls, down Agate Way, and through the city to their fortress. You would be surprised at how quickly people cleared out of the way of the Ash Guard, even if they weren’t mages. I tried to make a joke about it, but not a single one of the Guard cracked a smile.
“Tough crowd,” I muttered.
They didn’t laugh at that either. Maybe the Ash on their faces made them irritable. I didn’t feel much like laughing myself. I kept seeing the body of the Master Servant on the floor of Carnelian Silkstar’s office. I didn’t even know her name. I didn’t know if she had a family or friends. Did she like reading books and visiting the theatre, or did she like dining at the tavernas on Bayview Plaza, where you could look right down over the white roofs of the city to the glittering waters of Erastes Bay, without having to smell the sewage that emptied beyond the harbour wall? Whatever she was passionate about, she wouldn’t be doing it again, and I couldn’t help thinking I was to blame. My bad ankle throbbed with every step, and I stamped harder. It stopped me thinking too much.
I had lost sight of Benny almost immediately. Unlike me, he hadn’t warranted a squad of Ash Guard. The last I’d seen was him being manacled by the City Watch and led off.
Dammit, Benny! Why couldn’t you have stuck to robbing ordinary rich people? Why did you have to steal from a high mage? And why hadn’t I spotted the booby trap?
I forced the thought away. Feeling guilty was the last thing I needed here.
The cobbled square in front of the Ash Guard fortress was empty except for a few pedestrians hurrying by, heads down. There were none of the usual hawkers or entertainers you would expect to see in a city square. No one, mage or ordinary citizen, wanted to be near the headquarters of the Ash Guard. A dead rat lay in the gutter, body half gnawed. Distantly, I heard shouts from the docks and the hoarse protesting of gulls. The faint wind brought the smell of fish drying on racks on the docks.
The Ash Guard marched me inexorably on.
The entrance to the fortress consisted of double doors made of heavy, old wood still studded with iron. Inside, a well-lit passageway led into the building. I stumbled along, half dragged by my guards. About twenty feet in, the walls changed. Now, they were constructed of oddly-speckled bricks, where Ash had been baked into them. I suspected there was Ash in the mortar between the bricks, too. The whole place was a magical dead zone. I couldn’t help but feel a rush of despair as I was led deeper.
I was taken to a large, circular chamber. Smooth, high walls reached up to what appeared to be viewing galleries. I squinted to see if anyone was up there, but the ceiling was made of strutted glass, and the glare of the sun made it impossible to tell. If I had access to my magic…
There was a sturdy table in the middle of the room, with comfortable, padded chairs on either side and a plate of flatbreads, along with a pot and two cups, dead centre. The captain saw me looking.
“Help yourself,” she said.
The flatbread was still warm under my hand. My stomach gurgled at the smell rising from it, and I shot the Ash Guard captain an embarrassed look. The pot contained a light, yellow-green tea.
“It’ll settle your stomach,” she told me. “Now, wait here. I’ll be back.”
This wasn’t what I had been expecting. I had heard terrible stories of what went on in the fortress, admittedly from people who had never been inside, but still. This hospitality made me immediately suspicious. In my experience, people were only nice to you if they wanted something. I wasn’t in the mood for giving it to them, breakfast or no breakfast.
It’s their job to deal with mages, I reminded myself. Most mages saw themselves as being rather important in society. How better to take down their defences than to make them think they were just around for morning tea?