Mage Dissolution Read online

  I hoped Hugo didn’t notice the slight twitch in my hand as I forced myself to continue. I silently begged that he wouldn’t see the doubt in my eyes and the weaknesses of my conviction. If he even suspected that I had doubts about this then it would undermine my work.

  This had to be done. This man was my only link to finding Victor and my lost cousin. Nothing could stand in the way of that. Nothing. I’d done things in the past that I wasn’t proud of. I’d killed people, but only in the heat of battle. This was something new. I’d never had to torture before. I wasn’t sure if I was up to it – I only knew that this had to be done. Silence filled the air, until I heard it. A sound I hadn’t expected. The silence was almost a fourth person in the room with us. I could hear the small gasps of breaths that Hugo was taking. I could hear the pounding of my heart, my own breath being forced from my lungs, and then the noise. The noise a phone makes when it’s dialling a number.

  I hadn’t noticed, but Renee had quietly backed away behind me. It wasn’t until I heard her phone dial that I realised something was amiss. I turned around to face her in amazement. She said three words into the phone, “We’ve got him.”

  She hung up the phone and slipped it back into her pocket. What had she done? The look on her face was one of betrayal. The shock of it hit me like a fist to the face.

  Who had she called?

  Renee couldn’t look at me. I turned back to Hugo who shared my amazement and then back to Renee. She had taken several steps back against the wall and kept her eyes focused warily on me. What did she think I was going to do? Attack her? She was acting almost as if she thought I might.

  What the hell was going on?

  I didn’t jump when the Scry thread arched into the room. I already had a feeling that someone was coming. The only question was who. The Scry thread was horribly complex. They’d done things in a way I wouldn’t have thought was possible. Whoever was coming was incredibly skilled – an undisputed master of our craft.

  This narrowed it down to two people. It didn’t really matter which one it was, although I suspected I already knew the answer. It explained why Renee had assisted me tonight when she had previously declined. It explained why she had been willing to take the risk of running into her grandfather. She knew for certain that he wouldn’t be there. I wasn’t surprised when the man arrived behind the Mana. Marcus Deveraux – Renee’s father.

  He was the lesser of the two evils, but still not how I wanted to do this. He was just as manipulative and as ruthless as my former Master.

  I nodded my head darkly to Marcus in way of greeting and flashed Renee a warning look. She didn’t return my glance.

  “Hugo Kurtz, it’s a pleasure to see you once again.” Marcus intoned as he surveyed the room. There was no warmth in his voice.

  If Hugo had looked scared of the hunting knife he was terrified of Marcus. I didn’t blame him. He radiated power.

  I hadn’t seen him since our last encounter. An encounter that had almost cost me my life. He was not a man to cross. To those with Mana sight he was a figure of terror. He was almost power defined. The Mana seemed to sit up and beg at his command. It flowed across his flesh in waves of power.

  He glanced at me as he moved towards Hugo. Hugo gave a whimpered gasp and attempted to pull away, but he was firmly bound to the chair.

  “I shall be quick,” he announced as he leant over Hugo. “My journey over the Atlantic will have been noticed.”

  The Mana in Marcus’s body rose as he turned and blocked my view of Hugo. All I could see was Marcus’s hand forcefully clamped around Hugo’s head, pulling his neck to one side. I could hear Hugo straining against the grip, but failing to match the Mage’s strength. I couldn’t see what Marcus was doing, but I could hear gasps of pain from Hugo. This lasted several seconds, followed by a soft sigh.

  “The compulsion is now broken,” Marcus announced with satisfaction as he stepped back. When had he learned to do that? I gazed at him in amazement. I cursed myself for not paying more attention to what he had been doing.

  Hugo looked like a completely different man. His pose had been defiant and stalwart in the face of almost certain death, he now looked frightened and weak. His eyes searched the room frantically as if seeking an escape. He knew that it wasn’t over yet. Marcus may have broken the compulsion, but he didn’t have what he wanted yet.

  “Where is Victor hiding?” Marcus asked softly.

  “I don’t know,” the accountant begged, his voice cracking under the strain. “He comes and goes, I don’t know from where.”

  “You’re lying!” Marcus snarled as if his anger had suddenly got the better of him. I wasn’t surprised by the sudden mood shift, he’d displayed that characteristic before. It made him unpredictable and dangerous. I backed away several steps.

  I couldn’t look any longer. I turned and sidled over to Renee. She glanced at me nervously as I approached, but said nothing. We could hear Marcus’s demands getting more insistent. For what it’s worth I didn’t think Hugo was lying, but I wasn’t going to interfere with Marcus. Not now and most definitely not over Hugo.

  “Marcus told you about the accountant didn’t he?” I whispered. I wasn’t looking at her; I was still facing Hugo.

  “Yes.” I could barely hear her.

  Renee was the one who had told me about Hugo. Renee was the one who led me to Berlin. I had once told Marcus that I wouldn’t become another one of his agents. I had stated again and again that I wanted nothing to do with his war against Victor. Through Renee he had turned me into just that.

  I grimaced as I let my anger settle. This was the exact position I didn’t want to be in. War was coming. It was obvious to anyone who cared to look that it was coming. Our kind were at each other’s throats and I didn’t need to be told that once the dust settled there would only be a few of us remaining. It was obvious. I had been involved in several Mage fights and I knew from experience that they were short and they were vicious. There would be no quarter, there would be no surrender. One side would emerge victorious or both sides would be destroyed. And now thanks to Renee I was squarely in the middle of it. All I wanted was to get Allie and get the hell away from our kind before the fighting started.

  I hadn’t thought to question her when she had arrived to tell me about the accountant. I hadn’t questioned her motives. I hadn’t even thought to check her facts. Hugo wasn’t going to lead me to Allie. He probably had no idea who the hell Allie even was, other than the fact that she was an associate of Victor’s.

  “You should have told me,” I whispered.

  “I had to call him, I wasn’t going to let you do…” she trailed off, “…what you needed to do to get information out of Hugo.”

  “I’m not talking about that,” I whispered a little more harshly. “I’m talking about sending me after Hugo in the first place.”

  Renee’s face fell, “You were getting nowhere and you were getting more desperate. I feared you might do something stupid.”

  That was true – for the most part. I had even thought about going to see the Primea and forcing a confrontation, to see if she could lead me to my cousin. I knew where she lived in Paris. I had spoken to her once. It would have been had been a risky long shot, by even the most optimistic of odds. It was unlikely that she would help me, I was an outcast after all, and it could have led to my death, but I needed to something. My inability to find Allie plagued me. The longer she remained with my former Master, the longer he would have to corrupt her and turn her into the very monster he had sought to turn me into.

  “You realise this is a betrayal right?” I whispered.

  “I know.”

  “You were the one person I trusted explicitly, pretty much the only one left.”

  “More fool you,” she whispered sadly. I turned to look at her, she wouldn’t return my gaze. She was watching her father mentally torturing a man handcuffed to a chair. I didn’t like to think what was going through her head.

  “So it seems.�
�� I finished.

  I didn’t care to watch any more. This was a dead end for me. Hugo had no idea where Victor was hiding. He probably never did. He was probably telling the truth when he said that he didn’t know who Allie was. The only reason he was cuffed to that chair was because Marcus had deemed it necessary and he’d used me to achieve his ends. I’d been played for a fool.

  A direct attack by Marcus against Victor would have resulted in a war immediately. An attack by me, could be explained away. I had been less than subtle in my pursuit of my cousin, which wasn’t exactly out of character. Marcus could even claim the whole attack had been my idea and that he hadn’t been involved at all. He could wash his hands of it.

  I knew without doubt that he would eradicate me if I became a threat to him. He’d already proved that he was quite capable of such cold-blooded practicality.

  I vaguely thought about teleporting away, but I doubted that he would allow it and I had no interest in being hit with a disrupt field half way through dis-corporation. That would be fatal, and so I waited like a good little lap boy to be dismissed by the master. I cursed myself for my own stupidity.

  Hugo’s interrogation took about three quarters of an hour, I spent the majority of it on the balcony looking over the city. Renee didn’t join me, I think we both felt that we needed some time alone. When I had first arrived in Berlin I had thought the city stunning. There was a functional practicality to it that spoke of old tradition and grandeur. It wasn’t a beautiful city, but it had a charm to it that spoke to me. Tonight, the city suddenly didn’t look so appealing. I wanted out of it. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible, but I was sure that Marcus would have words to say to me once he was done with Hugo.

  I would do what I always did, politely listen and refuse to assist. Short of killing me there wasn’t much more he could do. Marcus couldn’t use the same compulsions that Victor used on Hugo with me as he himself had shown me how to resist them. This led to a stalemate – a no score loss for both sides.

  It appeared that Marcus was done, Hugo seemed to be sleeping in his chair, but I knew better. He was probably in a coma. Marcus would not have been gentle. Marcus gestured towards me through the glass and directed me to take a seat.

  “This man was the final link in a long hunt for me.” Marcus began, “I’d like to thank you for your assistance. I couldn’t have obtained him without your help.”

  “Happy to,” I replied dryly. The sarcasm was obvious, but Marcus ignored it.

  “Aren’t you interested in what I was after?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.

  “Not particularly.” I lied. In truth I was intrigued, whatever Marcus had been after was sure to have been something that would enable him to bring Victor down. Once Victor was disposed of, I was sure that I’d be able to convince Allie to return to Australia with me. Assuming of course that Victor didn’t drag Allie down with him.

  At one point I’d thought that assisting Marcus in Victor’s downfall would be a good tactic. But I rejected the idea because I realised that it didn’t really matter who took the dominant role amongst our kind – Victor or Marcus – neither would allow me my independence. Once one had devoured the other, they would come for me.

  I looked at Marcus thoughtfully. He looked positively giddy, I had never seen him so animated. Whatever he had found must have been good. I wasn’t fooled though; the outside was an illusion – carefully crafted one. Behind his eyes I could see his scheming, the plans being considered and rejected, the pieces moving across the board. He was obviously moving in for checkmate. That was the trick though, who was he trying to checkmate, me or Victor?

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  “Something that will allow me to expose Victor as the immoral bastard that he is,” Marcus replied.

  I briefly wondered if such information existed to expose Marcus in a similar way.

  He continued, “I think I’ve found his laboratory.”

  “And this is important why?”

  “Because it’s where he devised his studies into Necromancy and if it contains what I think it contains I can go to the Primea and the council can have him exiled.”

  “The Primea won’t do that. She can’t – he’s too influential.”

  “If you find what I think you’ll find, she will have no choice.”

  “If I find?” I repeated shrilly.

  Marcus just nodded as if this decision had already been made. I hated that about him. He always appeared to be so in control, as if nothing could possibly go wrong.

  “I’m not going,” I said, “Go yourself.”

  “Can’t afford to, I’m afraid, I’ll need to remain visible for the next few days.”

  “No, I’m not going,” I repeated angrily, “Send Renee, I’m not getting any more mixed up in this.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow at me.

  “You’ll go,” he said eventually, “because I can help you. I know where your cousin is living.”

  “What?”

  “I know where Alisha Burton is,” Marcus repeated.

  “And you’ve kept this information to yourself all this time?”

  “I’ve only recently acquired this information.”

  Renee was looking at Marcus with distrust. It was reassuring to see her face echoing my thoughts.

  “Bring me back what I want, and I’ll tell you.” Marcus said, “I’ll even assist you.”

  “Where am I going?” I sighed. There was no point in delaying this any longer. He knew as well as I did that I was going now. I could keep searching the Earth forever with little chance of finding her. I needed help and Marcus damned well knew it.

  “In southern Poland lies a range of Mountains,” Marcus began, “The Tatras Range.”

  “Poland? Why would it be in Poland?”

  “Because that area was once controlled by Germany,” Marcus explained slowly. It was almost as if he was talking to a child. I didn’t need the sarcasm.

  “Where exactly am I going?” I didn’t particularly want to discuss this any longer than I needed to.

  “Hugo didn’t know exactly. All he knows is that Victor has over the past few years spent quite lot of his resources keeping the resorts from up there encroaching into a specific area of the mountain range.”

  “So I’m what, running around the mountain looking for something?”

  “I can give you a general area.”

  “It’s still very sketchy.”

  “When you find it, it will be obvious.”

  I shook my head – this was a fool’s chase.

  “I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

  “It’ll be old and it will be underground. I’ve been there once before, but I had no idea where it was at the time.”

  “You’ve been there?”

  “Yes, Victor took me there when I was his apprentice, many many years ago.”

  “Fine, I’ll go.” I muttered reluctantly.

  “I’ll come too.” Renee said.

  “No,” I snapped. “I’ll go alone.”

  Renee flashed me a hurt look, but I didn’t care. She’d already betrayed me once today, I wasn’t in the mood to give her another chance.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I’d never felt cold such as this before in my life. My fingers were clasped firmly against the heavy jacket I’d procured before I made the trip south.

  The Tatras mountains were part of the massive Carpathian range that had once separated Poland from the old Ottoman Empire. Although not a very large mountain range in themselves they were treacherous with deep pitfalls and sheer cliffs. It wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had to come here during winter. My first journey up the mountain had been an unmitigated failure, without cold weather gear I almost froze to death.

  I’d never really had that much experience with snow apart from a couple of family trips to the Victorian snow fields, but that was nothing like this. Those visits had been to a ski resort with maintained grounds and carefully marked out safe are
as.

  Marcus had given me a general area to search out, but it was still like I was looking for a needle in a haystack and it was a lot of distance to cover. Fortunately I didn’t have to physically move all that often. Using Scry I was able to comb through the mountain ranges. The only issue with this was that it required me to sit still for long periods of time whilst my Scry thread searched out my target. This wasn’t a good idea while you’re in the middle of a snowfield. The inactivity coupled with the intense cold caused cramps up and down my legs, and my knees were getting stiff and painful to move. I felt like I was about seventy years old and I moved like I was crippled. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

  I came to hate the very concept of snow. It’s supposed to be soft and fluffy right? Wrong, it’s brittle and its course. It gets into the gap between my gloves and my coat and it burns. I had already turned my ankle twice on snow-drifts that looked stable, but gave way once I put weight on them. It was painful and it was infuriating.

  I would have liked to have used the ski resorts as a base of operations, but they were full to capacity. So I was teleporting daily from a small Polish town at the foot of the mountains. The only problem was that this severely limited my search-range as I had to make sure that I was able to teleport back to the town with some degree of surety. I didn’t want to mess up a teleportation in the middle of nowhere. That would lead to certain death.

  Today I may have left my return a little late. As I attempted my first landing I found myself sliding down the side of the mountain. I slammed against a fallen branch. The impact tore through my knee joint and sent tremors up to my hip. Even through my shield it hurt. Without the shield it probably would have torn my knee into fragments. I carefully pulled myself back up to my feet and immediately fell back down. My knee just couldn’t take the weight. Great. This was just perfect.