Benedict Jacka - Fated

For a moment Cinder hesitated, then he grinned again and the futures shifted decisively. ‘I reckon you got nothing.’

Shit, shit, shit. Every future I could see now led to an all-out battle. I searched through them frantically, trying not to let it show in my voice. ‘Bad idea.’

‘Oh yeah?’ He spread his arms invitingly. ‘Take your best shot.’

Twenty seconds. Suddenly I found a cluster of futures free and clear of danger. I scanned them desperately. What was the difference, what did I have to do? Ten seconds. The air started to darken around Cinder, the sunlight going from yellow to blood-red.

A name. I rehearsed it, spoke. ‘Morden.’

Cinder stopped dead. His magic faded away and the evening sunlight flooded back. ‘What?’

I stood there, not answering. ‘You working for him?’ Cinder asked at last.

I raised my eyebrows. ‘What do you think?’

Cinder hesitated, and the seconds stretched out. It looked almost as if he were afraid. ‘Why didn’t you-?’

‘You didn’t ask.’

Cinder’s expression firmed up again. ‘You tell the old man we meant it. He’s not our master.’ Cinder was still trying to sound threatening, but he wasn’t going to attack, not any more. ‘He’s smart, he’ll stay out of this. You too.’

‘What am I? Your postman? Tell him yourself.’

Cinder stared at me, then took a step back, disappearing into the trees. I felt a surge of magic and he was gone.

I stayed standing for another ten seconds, scanning the future to see if Cinder would be back. Once I was absolutely, positively sure he wouldn’t be, the strength went out of my legs and I flopped to the ground. My heart was hammering. ‘Jesus,’ I muttered.

‘Alex?’ Luna finally said from behind the tree.

‘He’s gone,’ I managed. I tried to get up and found I couldn’t. My hands were shaking. All I could do was sit there as Luna emerged, looking around at the normal, everyday shapes around her. The birds that had fallen silent at Cinder’s approach had started to sing again, and there was no sign he’d ever come. Luna knelt down, closer than normal. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine.’ I brushed my hair back, then gripped it to stop my hands shaking.

Luna made as if to reach out to me, then checked herself and pulled back, drawing away to a safe distance. There was concern in her blue eyes, though, and strangely that made me feel better. ‘What happened?’

I took a deep breath, remembering that Luna couldn’t look into the future. I’d seen all the ways the meeting could end with the grass burnt black with flame, but Luna had heard only voices. ‘That was your first Dark mage.’

‘They’re dangerous?’

‘Understatement of the year.’ My breathing was steadying down. I pulled myself to my feet and patted the backpack to make sure the cube was still there. ‘I don’t understand,’ Luna said. ‘Who’s Morden?’

‘Southbound terminus on the Northern line.’

Luna looked at me blankly.

I sighed. ‘No clue. All I know is that it was the only thing that would have got Cinder off my back.’

‘But why?’

‘Because it made Cinder think I’m working for this Morden guy, and he didn’t want to pick that big a fight. But now Cinder’s going to go hunt up some people to ask, and once he finds out it was a bluff, he’ll be back. I just bought myself a whole lot of trouble.’

‘You were bluffing?’

I started for the edge of the park. ‘Let’s get out of here before he figures that out.’

My flat is just above the shop, up on the first floor. It’s got what passes for my kitchen as well as a sofa, a table and a couple of chairs for my rare-to-nonexistent visitors. There are three watercolours on the walls, inherited from the previous owner, and the windows look out over a low roof onto a view of the London skyline. The sun was dipping low in the sky, and the lights had started to come on across the city, outlining the buildings in yellow and orange. Across the canal and visible over the bridges are blocks of flats, their sides turned towards me, and I like sometimes in the evenings to lie on the sofa and watch the shifting patterns of the lights in the windows, wondering what they mean.

Luna was curled up on one corner of the sofa, while I was sprawled in my favourite chair. ‘So,’ I said, setting my glass down with a sigh. ‘Now you know one of the reasons I don’t hang around with other mages.’

Luna gave me a questioning look and I shook my head, more to reassure myself than her. ‘Well, it’s done and we got away safely. Could have been a lot worse. You were a good girl to run and hide when I told you.’

‘Don’t call me a good girl. You’re not that much older.’

‘Don’t argue. Be a good girl.’

Luna gave me one of her rare smiles. It faded quickly though. ‘Alex … You were scary. Your voice was so cold. I thought you were going to …’

‘Going to what?’

Luna was silent. ‘You were really bluffing?’

‘He was looking for weakness.’

‘I thought you didn’t know him?’

‘I know people like him.’ I fell silent, lost in old memories.

‘He talked like he knew you,’ Luna said after a pause.

I didn’t answer.

‘How do you know people like him?’ When I still didn’t answer, Luna went on. ‘Is it about what you did before you got this shop?’

‘Luna …’ There was a warning note in my voice.

Luna fell silent. When I looked up, though, she met my eyes, not backing down. ‘You’re better off staying away from this,’ I said at last. ‘Just knowing about these people can get you in trouble.’

Luna tilted her head. ‘I thought you said I was already in trouble?’

I hesitated. Mages have a policy of not discussing their business with outsiders. The Council wouldn’t be happy if they found I was telling this to Luna. On the other hand, the Council doesn’t like me anyway.

And besides, I’ve never really bought into the idea of keeping people ignorant for their own good. What you know can hurt you, but what you don’t know can hurt you a lot worse. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘What do you know about Dark mages?’

Luna curled her legs under her on the sofa. Her white fingers were clasped around a mug of tea, a faint wisp of steam drifting upwards. ‘I thought they were mages who went bad.’

‘No.’ I tried to figure out how to explain it. ‘Well … maybe. Dark mages follow a philosophy called the True Way. The True Way says that good and bad as we see it are conventions. Our ideas about good and evil come from customs and religions designed to benefit the people in power. Dark mages think that obeying them makes you a sheep. Like when you asked for that cube from that man today? A Dark mage would say you should have just taken it.’

‘You mean stealing it?’

‘A Dark mage would tell you that you only feel stealing is wrong because your parents brought you up that way. Right and wrong are just conventions, like which side of the road you drive on.’

Luna thought about it for a few seconds, then shook her head. ‘But he’d have called the police.’

I nodded. ‘That’s the bit they think matters. What stops people breaking the law is the threat of punishment, and the threat only means anything if there’s the power to enforce it. To a Dark mage, power is reality. The more power you have, the more you can shape the reality around you. Strength, cunning, influence, whatever, but the one thing they don’t tolerate is weakness. Dark mages believe weakness is a sin, something shameful. If you’re not strong enough to take what you want, it’s your fault.’

Luna frowned. ‘Oh.’

‘Do you understand?’

‘I suppose.’ Luna thought for a second. ‘I’ve heard people say stuff like that. I suppose they’ve got a point.’