“We don’t have time for games,” Alma said. “Say your piece and get out.”
All of a sudden, I was calm. The focus was audio-only, but in my mind’s eye I could see the people I was talking to, sitting around the Star Chamber’s long table. Alma, straight-backed and unsmiling, grey-streaked hair framing a pair of cold eyes. Bahamus, silver-haired and aristocratic, courteous but missing nothing. Druss, a bear of a man with a thick beard. Undaaris, his eyes flicking from one person to another. And last of all, Spire, tall and silent and aloof.
But there were two more chairs around the head of that table, and right now, it was those two empty seats that the remaining members of the Senior Council would be thinking about. I’d sat at that table in the Star Chamber so many times, but always as an observer. This time I was the one in the driver’s seat.
“Oh, I’d say you quite clearly have time for games, Alma, given that for the past week you’ve done nothing else. First you stonewall me while your hunters follow my trail, then you pretend to agree to a negotiation and send a small army. You’ve tried to kill me, you’ve tried to betray me, and most importantly, you’ve wasted my time. On the positive side, this time you’re at least picking up the call yourself, which suggests you might be starting to learn from experience.”
“You have your audience, Verus,” Alma said. “Don’t push your luck.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” If Alma’s voice was cold, mine was ice. “You will listen to me because you are fully aware of what the consequences will be if you don’t.”
“Verus,” Bahamus cut in before Alma could reply. “Let us try to stay on point, please. I believe you have a proposal.”
“I have exactly the same proposal that I gave you a week ago. An end to hostilities. It would have saved a great many deaths if you’d taken me seriously the first time.”
“There were reasons for our decision.”
“Yes. The biggest reason was sitting in the chair to your right and he was called Levistus. That reason has now been removed.”
There was an uncomfortable pause. “This really all you want, Verus?” Druss said. “Everyone walks away?”
“It’s all I wanted from the beginning. You’re the ones who’ve been making it complicated.”
“Because you still refuse to recognise what you are asking,” Alma said sharply. “You broke the Concord.”
“Deal with it.”
“You cannot break the most important laws of this country and tell the Light Council to ‘deal with it.’”
“Yes, I can.”
“Verus, be reasonable,” Bahamus said. “This is not only about you. Even if we were to overlook your . . . activities . . . the current state of your compatriot Miss Walker cannot be ignored.”
“You are directly responsible for the current state of Anne Walker,” I said. “And when I say you, I mean the Council as a whole. For years you turned a blind eye while mages like Sagash abused her. You voted to sentence her to death. After that was rescinded, Keepers reporting to Sal Sarque and Levistus attempted to kidnap and torture her, not once but multiple times. Maybe not all of you were responsible as individuals, but the Council is very much responsible as a whole, and the five of you lead the Council. And the Council treated her so badly that when she was trapped between that jinn and a Council task force, she turned to the jinn. Do you realise what it says about your behaviour that a jinn seemed like the better option?”
“Regardless of any sympathy I have for her current state—and I do have some, though you may not believe it—the fact remains that in her present condition, she is simply too dangerous. If you really want to help her, you should be trying to bring her in.”
“And if you wanted my help, you shouldn’t have sentenced us to death. Again.”
“The order was for your arrest,” Druss said.
“And how long do you think I’d have lasted in a Keeper cell?” I asked. “Whatever. I didn’t call to argue. I called to deliver a message. Do not go near me, do not go near Anne, and do not go near anyone I place under my protection. Clear?”
“We cannot simply ignore Anne,” Bahamus said.
“I will take care of Anne if it becomes necessary. Until and unless things reach that point, you will not move against her.”
“Your intentions regarding Anne Walker are irrelevant,” Alma said sharply. “You do not have the authority to make demands.”
“My authority is the two empty seats at your table.”
Alma’s voice was cold and menacing. “Are you attempting to threaten us?”
“That was not me threatening you,” I said. “This is me threatening you.” I leant forward and put every bit of my intensity into my voice. “There were seven of you at that table when you voted to sentence me to arrest and interrogation and death, and when you sent those Keepers to hunt me to the corners of the earth. There were six of you at that table when you refused my offer of a ceasefire and ordered Talisid’s team to ambush me. There are five of you at that table now. If you refuse my offer again, I will continue this war with every resource and ally at my disposal. I will use the information from Levistus’s files to sow discord in your ranks and destroy your base of support. I will ally with your enemies and use the information I’ve gathered over the years to strike where you are most vulnerable. And if that still doesn’t work, then I will come after you personally. I will arrange your destruction at the hands of others, as I did Sal Sarque, and I will kill you with my own hands, as I did Levistus. I will hunt you down one by one, so that there are four of you around that table, then three, then two, and if you still won’t listen then I will keep going until every last member of the Senior Council is dead and the Star Chamber is empty except for a records clerk sitting in an empty room!”
There was dead silence. I could almost hear the shock. No one spoke to the Council like that.
“You overreach yourself.” Alma tried to rally. “You were fortunate against Levistus. You will not be so lucky again.”
“Do you have any idea how many mages before you have told me that? Last night it was Levistus, and Lorenz and Caldera, and Levistus’s adepts, and Levistus’s security. Before that it was Talisid and his team. Before that it was Symmaris. Before that it was Jagadev. Before that it was Sal Sarque. Before that it was Onyx and Pyre. Every last one of them at some point looked at me, weighed up what they thought they knew, and decided that they liked their chances. Every last one of them is now defeated, dead, or both. So when you decide you can take me, Alma, I want you to understand very clearly that you are just the latest in a line of hundreds of people who thought the exact same thing!”