Taken

I’m always reluctant to take off my mist cloak. Invisibility is such a safe feeling and it’s so tempting to stay there rather than make yourself vulnerable again. But it doesn’t make your problems go away—all it does is delay them. I hid the cloak and sat down.

There was something I’d been putting off and I couldn’t ignore it much longer. My formal reply to Onyx’s challenge was due in a few hours; I’d been avoiding thinking about it in the hope that it’d go away. It hadn’t, and I needed to figure out what to do.

My odds of winning a duel against someone like Onyx were basically zero. Duels are designed to be fair fights, and I’m very bad at fair fights. With no cover it would come down to strength against strength, and even the weakest elemental mage outclasses me several times over in terms of raw power. I might give Onyx a surprise or two but there was only one way it could end.

What if I went in expecting to lose? I couldn’t beat Onyx, but losing a duel wouldn’t kill me. It’d be humiliating and I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I’ve had worse.

But while losing a duel wouldn’t kill me, losing a duel to Onyx might. Traditional duels aren’t supposed to be fatal but more than a few mages have died from “accidents” in the ring. Onyx would never get away with it, not in front of so many witnesses, but that wouldn’t be much consolation to me. And I really didn’t feel like trusting my life to Onyx’s self-control.

I leant back with a sigh, staring at the ceiling. I hate dealing with this stuff. So much of mage politics involves these no-win situations. I’m much happier hanging out with Luna and Arachne or minding my shop.

How would I deal with this if I were in my shop? If some random guy walked in off the street and challenged me to a duel, what would I do?

I’d tell him to get lost. Then if he tried to start a fight anyway, I’d make sure it wasn’t a fair one.

Was there anything stopping me from just saying no? Now that I thought about it I didn’t think there was. By custom a mage is supposed to answer a challenge, but there aren’t any actual penalties for refusing. Traditional Light mages would see it as dishonourable, but the traditional Light mages don’t like me anyway.

The real danger was that I’d appear weak. But elemental mages already think diviners are weak, and it works to my advantage as often as not. Besides, I couldn’t see how declining the duel could do any more harm to my image than having Onyx publicly kick my ass.

I noticed that I was about to get a call. I took out my phone and hit the green button midway through the first ring. “Hey, Talisid.”

“Glad I caught you,” Talisid said. “There’s been a development.”

“What’s up?”

“Two Keepers have been sent to Fountain Reach. Avenor and Travis.”

I frowned. “What are they doing here?”

“They’re assigned to the apprentice investigation, so if they’re coming to you it’s a safe bet they’re following some lead.” Talisid paused. “It seems you’re starting to convince people that Fountain Reach may be the right place.”

“Well, I don’t know who convinced them but it wasn’t me.”

“You haven’t spoken to them?”

“No. When did they leave?”

“An hour or two ago. I’d expect them to be at Fountain Reach by now.”

“Um.” It bothered me for some reason. It sounded as though someone had tipped them off. But who?

“Have you made any progress?”

“Yes, but not over the phone. Talk to Sonder; he’s working on something from his end.”

“I will. Oh, and next time you go for a drive, make a little less mess, will you?”

“Yes, Talisid, the next time I have a bunch of unkillable construct assassins after me I’ll make it my number one priority to make sure you don’t have too much mess to clean up afterwards.”

“Glad to hear it.” Talisid sounded amused. “I’ll be in touch.”

I hung up and went to the duelling hall.

chapter 12

Heads turned as I walked into the hall. Onyx was there and I didn’t see any point in waiting for him to find me first. I walked towards the end of the hall, past the groups of apprentices and the mages turning to look at me.

Onyx watched me as I approached, arms folded. “You challenged me,” I told him once I was close enough. I didn’t keep my voice down and I could feel the mages around me listening. “Here’s my answer. No.”

Onyx’s lip curled. “Not fighting?”

“I’m not fighting.”

“The charges?”

“There are no charges,” I said. “You have a problem, take it to the Council.”

I’d been expecting Onyx to rage or threaten. He didn’t do either. Instead he stared at me for a long moment before giving a very slight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Then he walked out.

Luna was waiting on the other side of the crowd. “You’re okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine.”

“Was that it? You just had to say no?”

It wasn’t it. That smile worried me. If Onyx had been counting on my accepting the duel he should have reacted more. But that was my problem, not Luna’s, and I didn’t want to put anything else on her mind just now. “Pretty much,” I said. “When’s your match?”