When the fateweaver had replaced my hand, the border between it and my flesh had been at my wrist. That had been eighteen days ago. Ever since then, it had been spreading.
I stroked my left hand along my right. The surface felt smooth and slightly yielding, like a cross between flesh and some harder substance. I could feel the touch of my fingers, but the sensations were muted. From testing, I knew my new hand was far stronger and tougher than my old, and that wasn’t counting what the fateweaver could do. There was just the little question of what it was going to do to the rest of me.
I flexed my arm up and down. There was a slight stiffness in the elbow that I’d noticed as of yesterday, at around the same time that the tendrils had reached the joint. It didn’t hamper my movements, but it was a constant reminder.
I switched off the light and lay down on my futon. I lay awake for a long time before going to sleep.
chapter 3
I woke early the next morning. The Hollow was peaceful and quiet, birds singing in the early light, the sky a mix of pinks and yellows. I dressed and ate breakfast, then sat down at my desk with a pen and a sheet of blank paper. The window above the desk had a view out onto the grassy clearing beyond my front door. I picked up the pen and wrote three words.
– Anne
– Richard
– Council
With my free hand I tapped my thumbnail against my lips. I needed to deal with all three. How, and in what order?
In a perfect world, I’d be able to resolve all three conflicts peacefully. That was not going to happen. My best hope for negotiations had been the Council, and yesterday’s talks had put an end to that. Talks with Anne would be faster and probably less unpleasant, but our long-term goals were not the same, and she knew that as well as I did. That just left Richard, and I strongly suspected I’d burnt my bridges with him already.
So the how was simple. I had to neutralise all three as potential threats. That just left the question of order. I kept writing, ink scratching across the white paper.
1. Anne —> Richard —> Council
2. Anne —> Council —> Richard
3. Richard —> Anne —> Council
4. Richard —> Council —> Anne
5. Council —> Anne —> Richard
6. Council —> Richard —> Anne
I put down the pen and tapped my lips again. It’s an old habit of mine when I’m thinking. I used to do it with my right hand; nowadays I do it with my left.
Going after Anne seemed like the worst option by a long way. For one thing, out of all three, Anne was the closest to being on my side. I knew she still had some feelings for me, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to let me die if she could help it. And she had her own scores to settle. As long as I was fighting against them, I could (mostly) count her as an ally.
Of course, that was only going to last as long as Anne was calling the shots. Sooner or later the jinn was going to take over, at which point Anne was going to stop being an ally. In fact, once that happened, I was expecting the jinn to make me priority target number one. Which brought up a second reason not to go after Anne: the only way I could really “win” was to split her away from the jinn, and right now I had no idea how. Sooner or later (and probably sooner) I was going to need an answer.
That left Richard and the Council. Which one first?
If it was a question of who was the bigger threat, my answer would be Richard every time. He was smarter than the Council, and much more dangerous. On the other hand, more dangerous didn’t necessarily mean more dangerous to me. Richard had directly or indirectly saved my life several times over, and if he really wanted me dead, he could have done it a long time ago. My actions in Sal Sarque’s fortress might have changed that, but as things were, the Council hated me far more than Richard did, and with a lot less chance of me being able to change their minds.
There was also the same issue as with Anne. Richard had his own jinn, and if it wasn’t as powerful as Anne’s, his other skills and allies more than made up for it. I didn’t have a good game plan for how to face Richard. I didn’t have a good game plan for how to face the Council either, but it felt more possible.
Besides, Richard’s cabal and the Council were still at war. Allying with Richard was off the table for a variety of reasons . . . but then, Richard’s cabal had more members than just him, didn’t it?
You know, I think that could work. I lifted my pen and crossed out options one through four. When I got to five I hesitated, my pen hovering between five and six.
Seconds ticked by and I put down the pen. I needed to know more.
I hadn’t been idle over the past two weeks, and I’d gathered a fair bit of information about the Council and about Richard’s cabal. But I hadn’t managed to learn anything more about jinn. I’d spoken to various contacts, questioned Karyos, and even asked Luna to dig up what she could, and none of them had been able to tell me anything useful.
But there was one creature that would have the answers I needed.
I got up and went to prepare myself. Usually I’m not one for ritual, but for this I needed every advantage I could get. The Hollow has a small pool around the other side from where I sleep; I stripped naked and washed myself, cleaning each body part carefully and thoroughly. Once I was done, I dressed in a set of clean clothes, shivering slightly, then finished towelling my hair until it was completely dry.
I fetched my gear from the cottage. There wasn’t much: my dreamstone, a plain white cloth, and, most importantly, a chair. Then I walked through the woods until I found a small clearing that looked at first glance like any other. There was a tree stump to one side and I spread the cloth out over it, then I placed the chair about three feet from the stump, adjusting it until its legs were stable on the grass. Some mages like to kneel or sit cross-legged for this kind of work, but I find that makes my knees stiffen up. I sat down on the chair, hands in my lap, closed my eyes, and focused. I breathed in and out, slowly and regularly, holding myself quite still. Slowly and methodically I identified the fears and worries rattling around inside my head, and one by one, I put them gently but firmly away. My mind had to be clear and focused, and any stray thoughts could become a vulnerability to be used against me. When I finally opened my eyes, the shadows in the clearing had shrunk and the sun was visible above the treetops.
I rose and walked to a tree at the edge of the clearing, then touched a knot on its trunk and channelled a thread of magic. The illusion covering the middle of the trunk vanished, revealing that the tree was hollow. Inside were several wrapped packages.
When my shop was destroyed, I’d taken the most powerful and dangerous of my stock of items and hidden them away. I reached in and took out one of the smaller packages, a little less than a foot in length, then walked back and laid the item down on the tree stump. Carefully, I untied the wrappings and pushed away the cloth.