Cursed

But something happened then that the Light and the Dark mages did not expect. When Richard sent Tobruk—the cruellest and most powerful of his four apprentices—to kill me, it was Tobruk who died. And in the aftermath, instead of coming to take vengeance, Richard vanished, along with his last two apprentices, Rachel and Shireen. I was left alive, safe … and alone.

Technically, under mage law, I hadn’t done anything wrong. It’s not illegal for an apprentice to successfully defend himself against his master; it’s just so bloody rare no one’s ever bothered to pass a law against it. But I’d broken tradition older than law. An apprentice is supposed to obey his master, for good or ill, and no other mage would take me on—after all, if I’d rebelled against one master, I might rebel against another. Besides, no one was quite sure what had happened to Richard. He might be gone for good—or he might reappear, in which case nobody wanted to be anywhere near me when he did. So once again, other mages distanced themselves from me, and waited.

They waited and waited, and kept waiting so long they forgot all about me, by which time I was glad to let them do it. I started to make a new life for myself. I travelled, had some adventures. As a result of one of them I inherited a shop, a little business in the side streets of Camden Town. I’d only been planning to run it a few months, but as the months turned into years I realised I enjoyed what it brought me. The shop and the flat above it became my residence, then my home. I made new friends. Gradually, I began to remember what it was like to be happy again.

And then one day Lyle walked into my shop, and brought me back into the mage world with its politics and its alliances and its dangers. This time, I was prepared. And this time, to my surprise, I found I liked it.

I snapped out of my reverie. Lyle was talking, and seemed to have regained his confidence, though it was obvious that he’d prefer I wasn’t here. “Remember that in a duel, you’re representing both your master and the Council,” Lyle was saying. “Now, I know some of you have done this before, but it’s very important that your form is exactly right. Let’s go through the basic salutes and flourishes one more time … Yes?”

The one who had raised her hand was Luna. “Um,” Luna said. “Could you explain how these duels work?”

Lyle blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

Luna looked around to see that everyone else was watching her. “Well …” She seemed to choose her words carefully. “You’ve explained about the selection process. And the rituals and the salutes, and the withdrawal at the end. What about the part in the middle?”

“What part?”

“Um … the actual duel.”