Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three (8 page)

“Hmm. I couldn’t tell.” Yep. I definitely needed to work on picking up social cues. It’d be easier if we were speaking face to face. “You know what, lecture me on the most boring subject you can think of.”

“You want me to talk you to death?”

I laughed. “Nah.” I’d asked that question when he’d been my interrogator. “I used to fall asleep at school, is all. Guess that accounts for my crappy grades.”

“You passed the Alliance’s entry exams with high scores. Ms Weston told me. Where’d you learn to speak Klathican, anyway?”

“Uh…” He’d been asking about me? “Nell taught me. Said it’s the easiest language to learn in the Multiverse, because it’s so basic.”

“Yeah, the Klathicans tried to install it as a cross-world trade language a few decades ago. Didn’t take. Now there are a hundred variations.”

“And you speak… how many languages?”

A pause. “What level? Seven fluently, six semi-fluently, and I know odd phrases in a dozen more, maybe.”

“Holy hell,” I said. “Seriously, how did you have time? You’re what, twenty-one?”

“Yeah. Did I tell you how old I was?”

“Simon said you joined the Academy at sixteen.”
He also said you were in denial. Just say the freaking words, Ada.
“Wait a minute–I haven’t been shocked in a while.”
Way to chicken out.

“Maybe it’s wearing off. It only grazed you, right?”

“I hope so,” I said, though a twinge of guilt reminded me I’d had it easy. “It’ll probably be back.”

“Try and sleep while you can.”

“Yeah, suppose I should.” I sighed. There was more I wanted to say, much more. Even in the forest on Aglaia, if we hadn’t been interrupted, I didn’t know what would have happened. He’d probably have stopped me… well, given how he’d responded, maybe not. But then, I imagined most guys wouldn’t turn down a direct come-on.

“You still there?” he asked.

Oops. “Yeah, just drifted off for a moment,” I lied, as a drop of rainwater splashed on my face. “I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah, if I’m not sent after another unicorn.”

I wiped another raindrop off my face, picking up my book before it got splashed. “Wonder if they caught that griffin?”

“Wish they’d sent Simon after it,” said Kay. “I’d never have let him forget it.”

“Was any of this stuff in
your
job description, by the way?”

“Nah, but it’s the Alliance. If magic’s involved, it’s our problem.”

Another drop of water splashed onto my face. “Guess so. Crap, it’s raining.”

“Better get inside.”

“Yeah, suppose I should. I’ll see you tomorrow, anyway.”

Yawning, I returned to my room via the window. In the mirror, the marks on my neck and forehead had faded already.
What did that?
Maybe it was because the adamantine in my blood had finally kicked in. Or this magical instability had finally stopped.

Wishful thinking.

CHAPTER FOUR

KAY

Once again, Ms Weston called an early-morning meeting of all Central’s magic-wielders the following day, and we were to be ready to go offworld. Naturally, the message came through at five in the morning, thereby killing any chance I had of getting to sleep.

Then I got a message from Ada.
“I got Ms Weston’s message. I’m coming to Central. Can I meet you outside?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, of course. The magic burn’s gone and I’m not sitting in admin. She said to be ready to go offworld. I’m gonna need a caffeine hit.”

“I can take care of that. Espresso okay?”

“Please.”

The question was, if we were going offworld, did that mean the Alliance had tracked the magical disturbance to whichever world caused all this chaos?

I waited for Ada outside Central, two coffees in hand. She arrived, clad in guard gear with her bright-red hair ruffled by the cold wind. Jesus, the universe was really trying to torture me today.

“Hey,” she said, coming over to me. “You’re a lifesaver.”

I handed her the espresso. “You got lucky.”

“Yeah. I did.” The marks on her forehead and neck had faded already, though the thought of them made me feel like hitting something. That blasted magic-creature was lucky, too, that I hadn’t been the one to finish it off.

I drank half the scalding-hot coffee. “We should go see what the dragon wants.”

“Yeah.” She yawned. “What was worth pestering me at this godforsaken hour? It must be urgent, ’cause yesterday, she said I didn’t have to come in.”

“Yeah.” Especially since she’d called in all the magic-wielders. That either meant we were being sent out to somewhere on Earth, or offworld. “I suppose it’s because there aren’t all that many magic-wielders at Central.”

“So we’re the magic-wielder crack team.” She grinned at me.

“It’s in the job description. Right under ‘unicorn-catcher’ and ‘wrangler of runaway goblins.’”

Ada laughed, and I was kind of tempted to stick around and try and get that smile out of her again. But I didn’t want to test the dragon’s wrath at this hour in the morning.

In Ms Weston’s office, we found Raj, Iriel and Carl waiting. All, aside from Ms Weston, wore guard gear.

“We have been discussing the incident in the Passages yesterday,” said Ms Weston, without preamble. “The magic-creature came straight from a source world. Carl used a tracker to analyse it and the tech team have been working to get more details. We’ve found that it didn’t come from the second floor of the Passages, it came from below, on the boundary with the first level. And we’ve found that the source of disturbance across the Balance also came from this direction.”

“One world in particular,” Carl added.

“We’ve pinpointed it,” said Ms Weston, picking up her communicator from her desk and tapping the screen. “It’s a world registered with the Alliance but which has refused to apply for membership. The peoples of Vey-Xanetha migrated there from another world entirely after a cataclysm a thousand years ago, using the help of the Alliance as it existed at the time. There is an Alliance base there, but it’s more of a research base. We don’t currently have any Earth operatives there, but it’s functional, if a little isolated. And that’s where the disturbance is coming from.” She turned the communicator around so we could all see the bullet-point list of notes under the name VEY-XANETHA.

“From the base, or from that world in general?” I asked, frowning at the list. As I’d expected, the world was listed as high-magic. But I’d never heard of it before.

“The whole world recently experienced some kind of magical upheaval. Even the people at the base don’t know the specifics. Vey-Xanetha is high-magic in a very unusual way. They believe their three nature deities shaped their world and interact with them using magic. There is proof of this in the nature of the world itself.”

I blinked. “Seriously?”

Ms Weston arched an eyebrow. “So it would seem.”

Well, damn.
Definitely not a world I was familiar with. Not that I knew every world in the Multiverse, but a detail like that would definitely have stuck in my mind. The Zanthans worshiped an actual, living sea serpent, and most worlds had at least one culture where certain humans were regarded as living gods. Magic-wielders, usually. But magic deities as a living thing—as creators, even?

“These deities. Who are they, and what exactly do they do?” I asked.

“I don’t know all the details. The Vey-Xanethans have done a remarkable job keeping to themselves, all things considered. According to records, they were an advanced people when they were forced to leave the world they originally inhabited a thousand years ago, and were effectively forced to adapt to a hostile world nothing like what they were used to. At any rate, these deities are the core of their existence.”

“So is this upheaval linked to these… deities?”

“Perhaps. That’s why I want you all to travel there today. The council have called a meeting with representatives from the other allied worlds, but none feel the situation is urgent enough to merit sending in a team. Earth, however, has been affected worse than the others, and the council have permitted me to assign you to Vey-Xanetha as Earth’s representatives. I’ve asked the other two magic-wielders to stay here and keep an eye on the situation on Earth, and Carl, I want you to watch the Passages. Kay, Ada, Raj, Iriel, you’re to head to Vey-Xanetha and talk to people at the base. Some of you have useful skills which might help you determine what the problem is. There’s clearly been a magical disturbance, and the quicker we find out what it is, the quicker we can find a way to deal with it. If it affects the Balance, it becomes the Alliance’s problem.”

Yeah. Except a world that had already opted out of joining obviously had some issue with us. Even Aglaia had allied with the Alliance, and the leading centaurs couldn’t stand the sight of us.

“You’re to observe the situation, for now. With the current instability, anything you do there may–no, will, have consequences. Is that understood?”

She looked at Ada, but she’d directed the question at me, too. Everyone nodded.

“We’ve anticipated some communication difficulties due to the lack of links with other worlds–the people at the base have learned the native language, but of course, none of you will know. So we’ll be field-testing these.” She handed each of us a metal clip-on earpiece.

“They’re translators?” I guessed.

“Oh, they’re what my brother was working on,” said Ada, examining the device. “Don’t they automatically translate any language?”

“In theory. Don’t lose them. We have only a few in Central.”

I clipped on the device. “Someone say something in another language.”

“Like this?” said Iriel, uncertainly.

I pulled off the earpiece. “What was that?”

“Zanthan,” she said. “You understood?”

“Yeah. Guess these are updated versions of the communicator app? Or the sort the council uses for cross-world meetings?”

“They eliminate the need for computers,” said Ms Weston. “And on low-technology worlds, they will be much less likely to stir up content.” She turned to Ada. “Your brother certainly has a flair.”

“I’ll tell him,” said Ada, clipping on her own earpiece.

Raj did likewise. “This is pretty neat,” he said. “So it works with all languages?”

“All the ones registered,” she said. “You’ll have to speak slowly, mind. There are bound to be misunderstandings, but this is the best we have.”

“Awesome,” said Raj.

“Right,” said Ms Weston. “It’s Door 11, in an obscure Passage area, not one we usually use. There’s only one doorway to that world. I have to emphasise: you aren’t to leave the compound unless I send you further instructions. The dangers are unrecorded, but it’s registered as unstable.”

And on that note, we were dismissed. But I almost saw worry in her expression as we left. She hadn’t said to expect trouble, but with magic, it went with the territory.

“Unstable?” Ada asked, as we headed downstairs with the rest of the group. “How does the classification work, anyway?”

“Unstable means it’s barely hanging onto a connection with the Alliance,” I said. “The level above that is ‘dangerous’.”

“Like Enzar,” she said.

“Yeah.”

A wave of noise hit us before we reached the entrance hall. Crowds swarmed in, and a large number of people headed in the direction of the Complaints Division. Most didn’t look like they worked here, given the high number of offworlders amongst them. Central must have opened to public complaints now. Someone was going to have their work cut out. At least we were going to do something useful, rather than answering queries or rounding up escaped unicorns. We skirted around the crowd to the doors.

“I’ve never heard of Vey-Xanetha,” said Ada. “But Door 11… I think I’ve seen it before.” From the flash of guilt in her expression, I guessed she’d been near that door when using the Passages illegally before she’d joined the Alliance.

“I think I’ve heard the name,” said Iriel, “but I didn’t know anything about them until today.”

“Me neither,” said Raj. “But I can’t pretend I know every non-Alliance world.”

“Nor me,” I admitted. They must have worked hard to keep themselves secret from the Alliance. “Living deities?”

“Forces of nature, according to the file,” said Iriel. “I’ve heard of that kind of thing happening when magic and nature mix. Seems like a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one.”

“Magic usually is,” I said.

***

Vey-Xanetha had definitely done a good job hiding their door in the most labyrinthine part of the Passages, and if not for my knowing every inch of the place, we’d have been lost for longer. The door itself was at the back of a dead-ending corridor near one of the staircases to the second floor.

“About bloody time!” said Ada, as I pushed the door open. Before she followed, her gaze darted to a corner, where a faint shimmer showed a hidden stair to the lower levels. One of the routes to the hidden Passage she used to take, probably. Now the Alliance knew the Passage’s location, we didn’t use it anymore, but they hadn’t closed it, for some reason. I supposed it might work in their favour to have an extra doorway into London.