Taken

“As long as Crystal’s still out there we might,” I said sharply. “Do you have any leads?”

“Unfortunately since she disappeared in Fountain Reach there’s very little to go on. We’ve tried tracer spells but so far nothing.”

“So she gets away clean.”

“I think the masters and relatives of the apprentices she helped murder might have something to say about that,” Talisid said dryly. “I know at least five mages who are currently bending their full resources towards tracking Crystal down and killing her.”

I made a neutral sound.

“Not everything is your responsibility, Verus,” Talisid said, and his voice was firm. “You found her. Others will take it from here.”

I turned away, looking into the darkness. Again I remembered that great bare room with its scent of death, rows and rows of alcoves filled with the remains of human bodies. I wondered how many Crystal had led there to their deaths, how many Vitus had butchered on that blood-soaked table. And I wondered what would have happened if Vitus and Crystal hadn’t decided that their ritual needed an apprentice. If they’d kept on killing normals and sensitives and adepts, as they’d done for so long before, would any of the Light mages have noticed? And if they had, how many would have cared?

“Um,” Luna said hesitantly. She’d been silent until now, watching our conversation from a safe distance. “Is Anne going to be okay? With the Council, I mean.”

“She’s still under arrest,” Talisid said, “but as far as I know there are no plans to press for a trial. The last I heard from Avenor he was coming around to the view that she hadn’t knowingly cooperated with any of the kidnappings.”

“Knowingly?” I said.

Talisid nodded. “They seem to have accepted your explanation as the most probable one.”

Luna looked between us. “What explanation?”

“Crystal had access to Anne through the apprentice program,” I said. “She could have read the information she needed out of Anne’s mind.”

“It doesn’t account for every detail,” Talisid said. “But given Crystal’s obvious guilt I think the Keepers are eventually going to accept it.”

“So they’re going to let Anne go?” Luna asked.

“I can’t give any guarantees, but that’s what I would expect.”

Luna looked relieved. “Looks like it’s about to kick off,” I said.

Talisid turned towards Fountain Reach. “So it is.”

For a few seconds the hillside was still. Then from below the night lit up in a flash as explosives went off all around Fountain Reach. The mansion’s outer walls simply disintegrated, coming down in a tumble of bricks and stone even as the echoes of the first blast came rumbling around the hills. The inner layers of the mansion were spared from the initial shockwave only to be caught in the spreading flames, fire engulfing the house far quicker than should be possible.

The blaze grew by leaps and bounds, licking higher and higher. From below I could sense fire magic working to enhance the flames and air magic pouring in pure oxygen to feed them. Sparks and embers went soaring into the night sky. Even from here I could feel a slight warmth; down below it must have been truly hellish.

The wards didn’t stand a chance and I felt them shredding and dissolving as the structure they were tied to burned away. I wondered what it must be like for Vitus, hidden in that pocket dimension that had once been his fortress and had now become his tomb. If it had been a smaller fire he might have been able to extinguish it by transporting away the air or the burning material as he had before, but there was nothing in the world that could have extinguished this. All he could do was sit there and watch.

I don’t know if Vitus came out. There was a minute or two during which the wards still held, even while all around them Fountain Reach burned with a single flame. Maybe somewhere in that time Vitus Aubuchon did emerge, leaving his sanctuary for one last time in a final desperate attempt to defend his home. If he did he died there, alone and unnoticed in the blaze. A moment later the internal structure of the mansion groaned and broke, and Fountain Reach collapsed in an enormous crash, throwing a storm of smoke and sparks into the sky as the wards that protected it and linked it to that other copy of itself flickered and died.

The mages below didn’t stop. They kept the fire going as the ruins of Fountain Reach dwindled, burning the wreckage to splinters and the splinters to ash. They weren’t here to find or confront Vitus, they were here to eliminate him, as efficiently and safely as possible. Only when there was nothing left but dust did they finally let the fire die.

Talisid and Luna and I looked down the hillside in silence. Where Fountain Reach had stood was an open patch of scorched ground, still glowing with heat. “I think we’re done here,” Talisid said. “Was there anything else?”

“No,” I said.

“You did a very good job,” Talisid said, giving a nod to Luna to include her. “Call me any time you need my assistance. Good night.”