Taken

I raised an eyebrow, flipped the folder open, and skimmed the contents. “Details of offence . . .” I read aloud. “Damage of property . . . attempted theft of property . . . actual theft of property . . . assault upon his person . . . attempted murder . . . trespass . . .” I glanced up. “Don’t remember doing the last one.”

“He doesn’t seem to like you,” Crystal said.

“So I gather.” I closed the folder. “You’re overseeing the challenge?”

“This is my property,” Crystal said coolly. “Do you have a formal reply?”

“I don’t have to give one for twenty-four hours, do I?”

“No.”

“Okay, it can wait till then.”

Crystal frowned slightly. “You don’t seem to be taking this very seriously.”

“Oh, I am. How long have you lived here, by the way?”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“Just wondering how you came to move in.” I leant against the door, folding my arms.

Crystal studied me for a moment. “Perhaps I might be able to help you.”

“That’s always nice. How?”

“Onyx’s challenge requires my approval to be recognised,” Crystal said. She tapped her long nails on the sleeve of her coat. “It would be possible to . . . delay that approval.”

“And what were you thinking of in exchange?”

“I would rather the two of you didn’t use my house as a battlefield,” Crystal said. “You and Onyx seem to get on poorly. It seems to me the best resolution would be for you to leave.”

“Sorry. Don’t want to miss the tournament.”

“There are other tournaments.” Crystal studied me. “I would suggest you think it over carefully. Fountain Reach can be . . . inhospitable to those not welcome here.”

I returned Crystal’s gaze, keeping my mind and expression blank. Crystal turned and walked away without looking back. I watched her go, not relaxing. Only when she was out of sight did I step back into my room and close the door behind me. I leant against the door and folded my arms, staring down at the floor with a frown.

“Alex?” Luna asked. “What’s up?”

“Change of plan,” I said. “Luna, Anne, I want you to go find out everything you can about Fountain Reach. Who lives here, its past history, what Crystal does here. Try to avoid drawing attention to yourselves if you can but you’re apprentices; you can ask a lot of questions before anyone gets really suspicious.”

“What about all this?” Luna asked, gesturing to the papers.

“I’ll look through them.”

“Aren’t we going to look for Yasmin?” Anne asked.

“I’m going to be honest,” I said. “I don’t have any idea how to find Yasmin, not directly. We could go where she was last seen and help Sonder and the mages there try and find her. But I don’t think we’d help much. Sonder’s better at that kind of thing than I am. Also . . .” I frowned. “Maybe it’s just me but I’ve got the feeling that’s exactly what whoever took these apprentices is expecting us to do and that’s exactly what they’re prepared for. And so far they’ve done a really thorough job of cleaning up the evidence. But in the meantime a hell of a lot of people have been pointing us towards Fountain Reach and now Crystal’s just shown that she wants me out of here. I’m going to start taking them seriously.”

Luna and Anne shared a look. “All right,” Luna said. “I think I’m supposed to have my first match this evening.”

“I’ll be there. Go ahead and practice but make sure neither of you goes off alone.”

*  *  *

Once Luna and Anne were gone, I turned my attention to the papers. I’ve never gone in for magical research, but I’ve been around mages who have. As Anne had said it was longevity research, which actually made it easier for me to follow—it’s not the first time I’ve seen it.

Life extension tends to be popular amongst mages. Like all people with power, they want to stick around so they can continue using it. At the lower levels, it’s not difficult, either—between modern health care and life magic, mages can expect a natural life span well into their nineties. Of course, the actual practical life expectancy of mages is a hell of a lot lower than that, due to other mages taking proactive measures to bring down the average, but that’s the theory.

Once you get beyond a certain age though, longevity starts getting harder to pull off. The problem is that at a fundamental level humans just aren’t designed to live forever. As you get older it becomes more and more difficult to keep a body and mind in working order, until every part is breaking down faster than you can repair it. But this doesn’t stop mages from trying, and over the centuries they’ve tried a lot of ways.