Nemesis (9 page)

Hardly a subtle way of probing for information, but he wasn’t the first. In the modified version of the story I’d been forced to relate a hundred times over the past few weeks, I’d glossed over the race through Valeria’s capital to find Ada and the Campbells, and people were more interested to know about the final standoff at Central. I’d had to report to Ms Weston with the understanding that nothing I’d done on Neo Greyle would be used against me. The Balance had been at stake. No one was going to arrest me for hijacking a hover car, jumping onto a moving train, breaking into private property… even killing people.

Stop that.
I was far from the only Alliance guard to commit murder that day. I’d nearly died, and so had Ada. That was why I couldn’t afford to regret what I’d done. Quite apart from the fact that I’d had years of preparation for the moment when I’d finally crossed that line. The past was a closed book, for a damn good reason.

“Depends what the rumours said, exactly.” I kept my tone neutral, but I couldn’t say I liked the idea of rumours of any kind about what had happened on Valeria–especially with Ada.

“Nothing specific. Does it matter?”

It did, if Ada was concerned. On Valeria, the Campbells had forced her to demonstrate her abilities as a magic-wielder on others who the Alliance had used as experiments. I only hoped the few people who’d known were all dead. It was a good thing her family was registered under the Alliance’s protection now. But the collective offworld council had their eyes on both me
and
her, and I suspected they didn’t buy into my claim that she’d just used regular magic to take out the Campbells. I’d never have offered her the job if I thought anyone in the Alliance would hurt her, but there was more than one way to harm someone.

Like the others who’d helped her and her guardian, and the Enzarian refugees. At least the London Alliance was on the way to setting up a proper shelter network of its own, helped by an anonymous donation. Now all I needed to do was convince them to give Ada’s guardian, and the others her family had worked with, Alliance approval to carry on helping offworlders like they had before. I knew her family must be in financial trouble, but they’d never accept charity. Least of all from me. I still got the feeling she’d joined the Alliance from a lack of other options—a choice we’d forced on her.

I hadn’t seen Ada in two days, because I’d been stuck in these blasted meetings and she’d been in evaluation. The last thing she needed was more complications, and God only knew anything that happened between us would fall into the category of “complicated”. I hadn’t thought ahead. It wasn’t like we could just hook up and walk away, and no doubt that was the last thing on Ada’s mind now I’d been a total dick to her. Yet it was still a feeble excuse not to at least apologise.

We reached the clearing, where the centaur contingent awaited us. Markos cantered over to me and said, in English, “Please kill me.”

“Family reunion went well, then?”

“I would prefer to gouge out my eyeballs with a stick,” said Markos. “Speaking of which, I am certain I’ve managed to offend most of my relatives. I forget they don’t understand the concept of sarcasm.”

“Now that’s a tragedy,” I said, and Markos laughed. Naturally, several centaurs glared at us and Raj backed slowly away.

“What’s the latest from the council?” asked the centaur.

“Same as usual,” I said. “Except someone seems to think magic is wrong in Aglaia. Since what happened to the Balance. I wouldn’t know, but have the centaurs noticed anything odd?”

“Funny you should say that.” Markos gave a sharp glance towards the other centaurs. “When they haven’t been eviscerating me, they’ve been complaining that the mages are tampering with the weather conditions. It hasn’t rained in a month.”

“Hmm. That’s not exactly uncommon here, is it?”

“True, but any excuse to blame humans…”

On cue, a female voice shouted in Aglaian, “Why are you talking to that human?”

How many times are we going to have to go through this?
I turned to the interrupter, inferring at a glance she must be Markos’s sister. They had the same long, dark hair and sharply angled features.

“Hello, Eidora,” said Markos. “My sister,” he added, for my benefit, switching to Aglaian. “Eidora, meet Kay. My colleague from Central, and Ambassador for the Alliance.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” I said.

“I cannot say the feeling is mutual,” said Eidora, stony-faced.

Yeah, centaurs definitely didn’t get sarcasm.

“My charming sister is, surprisingly, on board with my plan to get the hell out of here… that is, to respectfully withdraw from my role as the king.”

“That’s something,” I said.

“Now we just need to convince… everyone else. We’re working on it.”

“And the king’s death?”
Tread carefully,
I thought, as Eidora’s gaze snapped onto me.

“No new developments,” said Markos. “Yet. If we are to determine whether magic was indeed the cause, we would need to convince the council to allow Alliance members from offworld in to check for traces. Central, for one, has the technology, does it not?”

“On Earth, our trackers can pinpoint an individual magic-wielder. I doubt it could be that specific here on Aglaia, but it would certainly help. Is there no chance the council would allow the Alliance to check? It seems an obvious solution.”

“It does. But no human has set foot in our royal grounds since the last war. There would be backlash.”

“That figures,” I muttered. “No offence to you, but you aren’t making this any easier for yourselves.”

“It’s none of your concern,
Ambassador,”
Eidora cut in, her eyes narrowing.

“On the contrary,” I said, “if magic is involved, it concerns the Balance. That affects the Alliance by default.”

Eidora kicked her back hoof up, and Markos moved towards her.

“Watch it…” he said. “The human is right. You know it.”

Eidora’s expression could have frozen a river, but I crossed my arms and met her stare. “I’m sure the council will have come to the same conclusion.”

“You’d better go,” Markos said in a low voice. His sister appeared on the brink of lashing out with those hooves. I was fairly sure I could get away, but starting another argument wouldn’t make negotiations any easier.

“I meant no offence,” I repeated to Eidora. “The choice is yours.”

“Get out,” snapped the centaur.

Shrugging, I turned to find Raj staring at me across the clearing, near the doorway.

“What was that?” he said. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Kay.”

“I’m aware of that,” I said. “Someone had to tell them.”

We stepped through the doorway, and the temperature dropped about thirty degrees. Magic changed too, from a subtle presence to a persistent buzz. I didn’t know the specifics of level difference between worlds. But suddenly, I
wanted
to know. Everything.

If anything would make this tedious mission worthwhile, it would be that.

Yeah. I was playing a dangerous game, all right. Next time we came here, it looked like I’d have to talk to the mage again. True, some people distrusted magic-wielders. Looked at them differently, warily. But I was used to that already.

Magic-wielder. Maybe it was about time I owned the title.

ADA

“You passed,” said Ms Weston.

As she spoke the two words I’d most needed to hear, the knot in my chest loosened.

“I did?” I tried not to sound too surprised. Aside from my freak-out in the simulation chamber, my grades from school were laughable and I’d almost accidentally mentioned that time I’d illegally taken Delta for a tour of London.

Note to self: don’t mention illegal excursions in front of the boss.

“Yes, you did. You’ll start work properly on Monday, and report to me. I’ll contact you if anything changes—you might hear from Carl, too. He’s the head of the guards, and it’s him you’ll have to speak to if you lose or break your communicator.”

Excuse me?
Did she really think me that careless? It wasn’t as though fancy electronics fell into my lap every week.

Apparently reading my expression, she said, “It happens more often than you might think, especially when guards run into trouble in the Passages.”

“Insurance against monster damage?” I tried a smile, but she didn’t return it.

“Meanwhile, all communication devices are fitted with a tracker for emergencies so they can be found anywhere within the neighbouring worlds.”

She went through the Alliance’s rules again, and handed me a proper key card. It even had my name on it–Ada, not Adamantine, thankfully, though I knew she was well aware of my real name.

Ada Fletcher. Novice Alliance guard and admin staff. It seemed so surreal.

“As for patrols, we’re putting you on the rota… with conditions. You’ll be supervised, of course. Though the odds of running into trouble are low at the current time, we want to make sure you’re ready.”

Ready to go back into the Passages. My chest knotted again at the thought.
Stop it, Ada.
I’d walked those Passages most of my life. I could play my new role as guard. It was the key to seeing the worlds I’d always dreamed of.

The smile on my face was genuine as I flew downstairs to the entrance hall. Jeth was already there, and before he had the chance to ask, I said, “Good news. I’m in.”

“You go, Ada,” he said, and we high fived.

“I start on Monday.” As we approached the doors, I couldn’t help scanning the car park in case Kay showed up, but I wasn’t holding out much hope. I hadn’t seen him since I’d made such a spectacular idiot of myself the other day, and I gathered from overhearing Ms Weston’s conversations with others in the office that he’d been roped into some kind of offworld crisis involving centaurs. It sounded a million times more exciting than paperwork, but I was one step closer to the Multiverse. I practically skipped out the door–just as Kay walked in.

I managed not to stop, but it was close. Kay now wore a different black jacket to the guard uniform, one with silver edges to the sleeves and a badge marking him as an Ambassador. I turned my eyes away before my gaze wandered further. To my own annoyance, my face heated up.

“I got the job,” I said lamely, as he walked by without stopping.

His blank expression didn’t change. “Knew you would.”

No “congratulations”, then?
Though it didn’t help that Jeth still hovered at my side.

“Um, I guess I’ll see you next week?” I said over my shoulder.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Please. Kill me. Now.

“Wow,” said Jeth as we left him behind. “Friendly, isn’t he?”

“He’s just… I have no idea.” I shook my head. “Never mind. We have to celebrate, right?”

“Actually, the tech team invited me out tonight,” said Jeth. “You can come if you like.”

I pulled a face. “Your tech talk goes way over my head.”

“Okay, just a thought. You don’t really know anyone at the Alliance yet, right? Aside from Sunshine over there?”

I laughed. “I guess not. And please don’t call him that to his face.”

“Oh, come on… no, you’re right, it’d probably be the last thing I ever said.” He ruffled my hair. “Ada, you deserve some fun in your life.”

“I guess I do. Sure thing. I’ll come.”

Maybe it would make me feel a little less deflated. My social life up until now had consisted of sneaking around the Passages and the occasional ever-awkward work social in which I’d had to pretend to have things in common with people who’d never believe me if I told them how I spent most of my spare time. I’d barely thought about my old job recently.

“My life’s so weird,” I said, aloud, as we passed by a group of tourists. The ordinary street, red-brick buildings and thick traffic, smothered in the smell of car fumes, couldn’t be more different to the almost-otherworldly atmosphere of Central.

And I knew which world I belonged in more.

“You only just figured that out?”

“Very funny. How’re things in Technoland, anyway?”

“Technoland? Pretty awesome, actually. These guys are the real deal. And it’s nice to be hero-worshiped a little.”

“They’re impressed with the Chameleon, then?” We stopped at the crossing opposite the tube station.

“Hell, yes. The head of tech had to lock them away because people keep trying to steal them to prank each other. I’ve created a monster.”

“Hey, could be handy for the Alliance. Spying and so on… though it’s a bit creepy.” I pushed back the image of identical twins appearing from thin air in a warehouse, and concentrated on the ever-present roar of traffic and not getting hit by a maniac taxi driver as we crossed the road to the station.

“Yeah,” he said. “They’d need authorisation to take them offworld, of course. There’s enough trouble with invisible goblins…”

“Um… what? Did you just say invisible goblins?”

“Trouble in Valeria,” he said. “Cethrax got hold of some bloodrock solution, apparently, and without the Campbells to keep them in check, they’re running amok with it.”