“I’m so glad you found us.”

  “The Mercy is full of talented magi and ex-Wardens, but it is not infallible. They made a couple of key mistakes, one of which involved taking Harry.” Malcolm nodded at him. “The loss of his aegis distorted his magical…I hesitate to call it an aura, which gives the wrong impression, but that’s essentially what it is—the part of a human that responds to magic and is constantly replenishing itself. It’s impossible to hide that aura, but individual humans all appear the same to someone searching for those auras. All except those rare individuals, like Harry, who’ve survived losing their aegis or have otherwise nearly been drained of their magic.”

  Harriet took her husband’s hand and squeezed it. “I always said you were unique. You wouldn’t really have tried to climb down the face of the building, would you?”

  “I was almost desperate enough to try it. I don’t think the rest of you were privy to what I heard. Our deaths were imminent.”

  Harriet closed her eyes and shuddered. “What a nightmare. I’m glad it’s over.”

  “Except it won’t really be over until the second oracle is destroyed,” I said. “Not that I want to depress anyone. Least of all myself.” How could I possibly focus on wedding things if I was worrying about Abernathy’s being destroyed?

  15

  Malcolm’s safe location turned out to be an ordinary-looking house in a town about an hour’s drive from the forest. A pleasant woman in a flowered dress opened the door for us without saying anything, nodding at Malcolm. The house smelled of macaroni and cheese, which made my stomach rumble. That roast beef sandwich hadn’t been nearly enough to satisfy me. But no food was forthcoming. Malcolm led us through the house as quickly as if he knew it well, stopping in a back bedroom as flowery as the woman’s dress. “Hold tight,” he told me. The woman in white hunter’s fatigues came forward and put one arm around my waist.

  Something wrenched at my stomach, making it want to turn inside out, and the smell of hot gunmetal filled the—air? There was no air, and I gasped, instinctively trying to fill my lungs. My eyes felt dry and aching, and I could see nothing but blank grayness. Then there was solid ground under my feet, and I coughed out the emptiness and drew in a deep, gardenia-scented breath. The woman’s arm kept me upright as I swallowed hard to keep the sandwich down. Good thing I hadn’t had any of the macaroni and cheese, or I would have decorated the concrete floor with it. Between the floor, the gardenias, and the not-too-cool air, I could guess, even blind as I was, that we were at the Gunther Node.

  “I can stand,” I told the woman, blinking away gray mist. As my vision cleared, I saw Harriet twist into existence beside me. I staggered away from the stone magus and bent over, hands on knees, while my vision finally cleared. Behind me, someone threw up. Good thing the floor was concrete and easily cleaned.

  I stood and looked around. The node was as busy as it ever was, but it was easy to see Lucia headed this way, striding rapidly and never stopping or moving out of someone’s way. They all got out of hers. “Is anyone hurt?” she asked me as soon as she was near enough.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “A few were killed. The Mercy escaped with the oracle.”

  “I don’t want to hear that story until everyone’s back,” Lucia said. She eyed the cracked glass sculpture I held, and without looking reached out and grabbed the arm of a black-clad tech who had the misfortune to pass too near. “Get Wallach up here, to my office,” she said. “I want him there yesterday.” The tech said nothing, just bolted off in a new direction and was swallowed up by the crowd.

  “Abernathy’s has been shut down since yesterday noon,” Lucia said. “I sent word to the Board. I’m sure you can guess what Ragsdale’s reaction was.”

  “What is his problem?” I shouted. “I was kidnapped and he wants to blame me for that?”

  “Calm down, Davies, everything’s fine. Stirlaugson was frosty with him. I think he may have gone too far—though just between the two of us, there are Board members who were already getting fed up with his antagonism toward you. Your forbearance is legendary. I’d have punched him in the face three months ago.”

  “I’m starting to wish I had. He’s developed this attitude that he can treat me like crap and I have to take it or risk the Board’s censure. I don’t think they wanted me to be servile.”

  “No. Something you might want to bring up when you speak with them tomorrow. They sent a messenger who came here looking for you when it turned out Abernathy’s was closed. Your appointment is at seven o’clock tomorrow evening.”

  “I’m pretty sure that was supposed to be confidential, Lucia.”

  “I’m persuasive.” She grinned at me, a wolfish look, then glanced past me. “Is that everyone, Campbell?”

  “It is,” Malcolm said, coming forward to put his arm around me. “It took some argument to convince the other glass magi to come here rather than returning to their homes, but they saw the value in sharing their knowledge. They are all rather adamant about not allowing the Mercy to have a working oracle.”

  “Good. My office, then.” She cast an eye over the gathering. “Maybe somewhere larger.”

  We did go to her office first, where we found Wallach sitting at Lucia’s desk, doodling on a scrap of paper. “You’d better—oh,” he said, seeing the crowd of people. “Ms. Davies. Harriet. I take it the rescue was successful.”

  “Is your Brown 28 lab cleared?” Lucia asked.

  “Better make it Red 36,” Wallach said, rising. “Brown 28 is still being cleaned after the incident.”

  I wanted to ask what the incident was, but Wallach was already following Lucia out the door and Malcolm steered me after them. Wallach hadn’t said anything about the glass sculpture, but I was sure he’d noticed it. Probably he was biding his time.

  It turned out I’d been to Red 36 before. It was the room where Malcolm had undergone the Damerel rites a second time. It was brightly lit by LEDs that made the room gleam with a cheery whiteness. Cabinets with doors set with frosted glass stood against the far wall, and the long padded table I remembered too well still sat in the center of the room. Its leather straps still gave the room an ominous feel, like the set of a horror movie featuring a mad doctor and surgical torture. Wallach gestured all of us inside, then sat casually on the table, flicking one of the straps so it swung slowly into another one and made them both sway. “Sorry about the lack of seating,” he said.

  “We’ll make this quick,” Lucia said. “Davies says the Mercy escaped with the oracle. Somebody explain that for me.”

  Harriet said, “Without going into irrelevant detail, the Mercy created an artificial body, so to speak, for a second oracle. They were able to carry almost all of it away, except for what Helena stole—how did you get that, dear? Surely they didn’t just give it to you.”

  “I took it from a man who wanted me to change sides,” I said. I offered the glass sculpture to Wallach, who took it with a bemused expression and turned it over in his hands. “I hit him with it and ran away when the Wardens showed up.”

  “So this is part of it?” Wallach said. “Interesting. How many did they need to make it active?”

  “The number varied,” Harry said. “Between twenty and thirty.”

  “They must have poured gallons of sanguinis sapiens into these things,” Wallach said, idly raising the thing to eye level and looking through one of the square holes. “I bet the oracle sucked them dry.”

  “They were learning to make it use less,” said the glass magus called Terence. “But it’s almost certainly why they needed all that sanguinis sapiens they stole from the South American nodes six months ago.”

  “So do they have a working oracle, or not?” Lucia said.

  Harry and Harriet exchanged glances. “They were close to figuring out the secret,” Harriet said. “We did what we could to slow them down, but it’s now only a matter of time. The only advantage we have that I can think of is that their oracle has to manifest at a distance, unlike Abernathy’s. It will take time for them to set up properly again.”

  “The store I walked into—the one connected to Abernathy’s when both oracles are active—was about two hours’ drive from where the oracle’s body was,” I said.

  “They’ll probably abandon that store. Too risky,” Lucia said. “Which means they could be anywhere now.”

  “Having one of their foci will let us track them, though they’ll certainly try to obscure their magic,” Wallach said. “It would be faster to wait for them to fire up the oracle again and let it connect to Abernathy’s.”

  Malcolm’s arm went around my shoulders again. “Out of the question,” he said. “Only Helena can pass between them, and she is not trained to face down magi fighters.”

  “But what if one of them enters Abernathy’s?” I exclaimed. “We have to take the fight to them.”

  “You are not part of that we,” Malcolm said.

  “Why not? I’m a Warden. And it’s my Neutrality that’s under attack. There has to be something I can do.”

  “Abernathy’s oracle isn’t active all the time, is it?” Wallach said.

  I shook my head. “It’s there all the time, but it’s only active when I make it so.”

  “That might not be good enough,” Wallach said, tapping the glass sculpture with his thumb and forefinger. “I’ll need more time to learn the details, but I can tell right now they’re trying to create an oracle that’s always on, so to speak. If that happens, it’s likely when Abernathy’s becomes active, it won’t be able to help getting tangled up in the second oracle. That could mean its destruction—mutual destruction, but that’s small comfort.”

  “I can’t let that happen,” I said. “Malcolm, you know that.”

  “What can you do to prevent it?” he said.

  “I don’t know, but Ken Gibbons will. I need to tell him what we’ve learned. There may be something about the nature of the oracle we can turn against the Mercy.”

  “I want you to promise me you won’t cross over again,” Malcolm said. “If they capture you again, there is no guarantee we’ll be able to find you.”

  “I won’t do anything reckless. I don’t want to be captured.”

  “We should close Abernathy’s doors for the duration,” Lucia said. “If it’s not active, the Mercy can’t do what you did.”

  “The Board will never go for it,” I said.

  “They will if they’re sensible. I’ll add my recommendation to yours.” Lucia walked over to where Wallach was absorbed in his study of the glass sculpture. “Any ideas how to disable the second oracle?”

  “You’re unexpectedly optimistic,” Wallach said. “I’ll need a vat of sanguinis sapiens to see if I can’t get this thing running again, and you glass magi can show me what you’ve learned. Between us, we should be able to figure this thing out. But we can’t shut down Abernathy’s. If we’re going to learn anything about the ansible, we have to be able to turn it on. If that’s what you call it.”

  Malcolm’s arm tightened around my shoulders. I said, “We have to stop the Mercy from destroying the oracle. That can’t be without risk.”

  Lucia turned her attention on me. “It’s your life you’ll be risking.”

  “The store is always full of Wardens, many of them front-line fighters. If I find myself in the second oracle, I’ll back out immediately.”

  Now Lucia looked at Malcolm. “I’ll send a team of enforcers,” she said. “Don’t get killed.”

  “I don’t plan on it.”

  “Nobody ever does, Davies.” Lucia sighed. “I’ll order the sanguinis sapiens. Where do you want it, Wallach?”

  “Purple 8,” Wallach said, standing. “Ms. Davies, I suggest you keep Abernathy’s open and make a record of the times the ansible opens.”

  “I can do that.” Malcolm was so still beside me he might as well have been a statue. “And I’ll call Ken and tell him what’s happened.”

  “Don’t worry, Mr. Campbell,” Wallach said. “I doubt the Mercy will be able to restore their oracle today. It maybe more than a week, if they have to find a new storefront. I doubt Ms. Davies will be in any danger.”

  “She is a Warden,” Malcolm said quietly. “It’s what we do.”

  My heart broke at the resignation in his voice. I wished I could reassure him that I would be safe, but he knew that was a lie. And yet it comforted me to know he wouldn’t try to overprotect me or keep me from doing my job.

  “Then let’s get moving,” Lucia said.

  “Ken, it’s Helena,” I said to Ken’s voice mail. “Again. I have some important information about Abernathy’s and I really need to talk to you. Please call me—I know you’re probably busy, but…anyway, I’ll talk to you soon.” I hung up and let out a deep sigh. “He’s probably teaching a class or something.”

  “I’m sure he will call you back soon,” Malcolm said.

  Judy poked her head in the doorway. “It’s almost two.”

  I hugged Malcolm. “I shouldn’t have let you stay during Nicollien time.”

  “I find I don’t give a damn what the Board thinks. Helena…” His voice trailed off.

  “If you’re about to tell me how dangerous this is, I already know.”

  “It’s not that. I am having difficulty not carrying you off to some safe location and keeping you there until the problem is resolved. Knowing you were in their hands—my instinct is to protect you, love.”

  “I know. But if we’re going to save the oracle, it will be because I’m out there doing my job.”

  His arms tightened around me. “I’ve told the office not to expect me for the next few days. I plan to stay here to keep an eye on things. If you disappear again…” He sighed. “I realize there’s nothing I can do if that happens. It’s not as if the oracle will open for me.”

  “No, but it makes me feel better having you here.” I kissed him and had to resist the urge to make it longer. “And Mr. Wallach is right. If they did have to abandon that storefront, it will take them some time to find a new place. It will give us time to find a solution.”

  The Ambrosites were lined up when we returned from the office. Malcolm took up a position near the front door. In his stained, scruffy fatigues, with the bruise he hadn’t yet had healed, he looked menacing, which reassured me. If the Mercy sent its weavers pouring through the ansible, they would be in for a nasty surprise.

  I accepted the first augury slip—What treatment should we pursue?—and entered the oracle, comforted to see its usual bluish light and the rows of yellow bookcases, piled haphazardly with books. “Do you know the danger you’re in?” I asked. “You haven’t behaved as if you were worried about anything, not like when the Mercy kept trying to get an augury. Do you even know about the other oracle?”

  I rounded a corner, still looking for the blue glow of the augury. It was only two o’clock and already I felt so tired I thought if I stopped moving, I might fall asleep on my feet. “I could really use a vacation,” I said. “I don’t know if that’s something you understand. I’m getting married on Sunday and it would be so nice to have a honeymoon. Warm beaches, the ocean air…so different from Portland. Not that I resent this job at all. But it’s been over two years and that’s a long time to work six days a week, eight or nine hours a day. Though you don’t get vacations either, so I guess we’re in this together.”

  The augury was so small I almost missed it, a tiny spark of blue nearly buried in a pile of larger books. It was slim, no bigger than my hand, and had a drawing of a ring of children dressed in native costumes from a dozen lands on the cover. Peace is a Circle of Love, the title read. Somehow it was cute and not saccharine. “Thanks,” I said, and the oracle’s presence faded.

  When I handed it over to the woman at the front of the line, she took one look at it and burst into tears. Shocked, I dithered about what to do and ended up patting her shoulder awkwardly and saying, “Is it not what you expected? We can…you don’t have to pay for it if it’s not—”

  “My mother had this book,” the woman said, accepting the Kleenex Judy handed her and wiping her eyes. “It was lost in the move to the assisted living center. She…her memory isn’t good, and she keeps asking for it. I can’t wait to be able to give it to her.”

  “Wow. I hope it helps.”

  “It would be worth it even if we never deciphered the augury,” the woman said, drawing vials of sanguinis sapiens from her expensive purse. “She’s already lost so much.”

  When she was gone, the next man in line said, “I didn’t know Abernathy’s could do that sort of thing. It can’t possibly be a coincidence.”

  “Abernathy’s understands more than we realize,” I said, accepting his augury request. I’d seen the oracle give out auguries for free when a child’s life was at stake, had seen it move books to spell out, literally, answers to questions, had even seen it work magic I couldn’t have imagined. That it might know the secret needs of the human heart did not surprise me at all.

  The oracle remained quiet all afternoon, the ansible dormant. Around four, Darius Wallach and a handful of the glass magi, including Harry and Harriet, trooped in. Wallach had the glass structure, which still had a great crack through it, but once again glowed translucent blue. “Carry on, Ms. Davies, don’t pay any attention to us,” Wallach said. Harry and Terence carried oversized shoeboxes filled with glassware of all shapes and colors. They set them down on the counter, which was still bare plywood. There hadn’t been time to replace the glass Harriet’s communication had destroyed.

  When I came out of the oracle, Wallach and the glass magi were fiddling with the strangest contraption I’d ever seen. It looked like something a baby might build in learning how to stack objects, a pyramid that rose three feet into the air with the Mercy’s glass sculpture at its center. “What is that?” I asked.

 

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