“And if she doesn’t? If she laughs in our faces, and tells us we’re crazy?”
“Then I’ll swear blind it was all your idea, and nothing to do with me.”
“Gosh, thanks,” said Hawk. “What would I do without you?”
Rowan and Tomb faced each other across Rowan’s bedroom. Rowan was in a towering rage, her face dangerously flushed, but Tomb stood his ground.
“You did
what,
Tomb?”
“I ran a scanning spell on you,” said Tomb. “A full body scan. I was worried about you. It seems I had every right to be. You’re ill, Rowan, very ill. You have been for some time. Your body’s riddled with cancers. I’m amazed you’re still able to function as well as you do. I can only assume your potions are effective painkillers, if nothing else.” His voice broke, and his pose broke with it. He looked miserably at her, almost pleading. “Why didn’t you tell me, Rowan? Did you think you couldn’t trust me?”
“I didn’t tell you,” said Rowan coldly, “because I wanted to avoid a scene like this. How many times do I have to say it, Tomb? This is none of your business. I’m none of your business. I have no interest in your feelings, and your interest in me is annoying when it isn’t intrusive. I want you to stay away from me. Dammit, Tomb, get the hell out of my life and leave me alone!”
“I can’t. You’re dying, Rowan. You must know that. Your condition is so advanced now there’s nothing sorcery can do for you anymore. Healers aren’t miracle workers. Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have helped you....”
“I don’t want your help! I don’t need your help!”
“At least let me tell Buchan. We can handle the God Squad work between us for a while. You have to rest, take things easy. We’ll look after you.”
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you? You do so love to fuss over me. Well, I haven’t time for that nonsense anymore. I have things to do, and not much time to do them in.”
Tomb looked at her blankly. “Things? What things? What can be more important than this? We’re talking about your life, Rowan! If you rest and take things easy, you could have months ahead of you yet. There are still some things I can do, some things I can try. If you don’t rest, you’ll be dead in a few weeks.”
Rowan looked away from him. “A few weeks,” she said quietly. “I didn’t realise it had got that close. Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, Rowan. My scan was very thorough, and there’s no room for doubt. Please. Let me help you.”
“No.” Rowan lifted her head and faced him squarely, perfectly composed. “I’ve chosen my way and I’ll stick to it.
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’m wrong!” Rowan smiled suddenly. “Trust me, Tomb. Whatever happens, I’m not going to die.”
“Rowan, you have to face this. You can’t just turn your back on it....”
“Oh, shut up! Get out of here, Tomb. Find something else to do instead of pestering me. I have some, thinking to do.”
There was a knock on the door, polite but firm. Rowan strode past Tomb without looking at him, opened the door, and glared at Buchan. “What do you want?”
“Hawk and Fisher are back. They’re waiting in the drawing room. They want to talk to us immediately. Apparently they’ve made a breakthrough on the God murders.”
“What kind of breakthrough?” asked Rowan.
“They didn’t give me any details. But they seemed quite excited.”
“This better be important,” Rowan said, sweeping past him. “I have things to do.”
Tomb and Buchan followed her out of the room, each lost in his own separate thoughts.
Rowan stormed into the drawing room and threw herself into her favourite chair. Hawk and Fisher stood together, their faces professionally calm, their hands resting on their sword belts. Rowan studied them both.
“Buchan said something about a breakthrough. What have you found out?”
“The truth,” said Hawk. “It took us a while, but we finally got there. We know who the God murderer is.”
Tomb entered the room just in time to hear that, and brightened up a little. “Well, that is good news, Captain. When can we expect an arrest?”
“I think you’d better sit down, sir Tomb,” said Fisher. “Our news isn’t exactly pleasant.”
Tomb’s smile faded away. He made no move to sit down, and studied their faces closely. “What is this? I don’t understand.”
“Rowan does,” said Hawk. “Don’t you, Rowan?”
The mystic met his gaze unflinchingly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Captain.”
“All right,” said Hawk. “We’ll do it the hard way. Rowan, you’re under arrest for the murder of four Beings, and the sorcerer Bode. You will come with us to Guard headquarters, where arrangements will be made for your trial. If you wish to make a confession, pen and paper will be provided.”
Hawk glanced at Tomb. The sorcerer was staring at him blankly. Rowan hadn’t reacted at all, except for a small smile tugging at the comer of her mouth.
“You must really be desperate, if you’re reduced to making blind allegations like that,” she said calmly. “What proof do you have? Where’s your evidence? I have a right to know why I’m being charged.”
“There’ll be time for that later,” said Fisher.
“We’ll talk about it now!” snapped Rowan. “I’m a member of the God Squad, in good standing. We have friends in high places. They won’t stand by and let you lay all the blame on me, just because you’re getting nowhere and the pressure’s on you to make an arrest.”
“That’s right,” said Tomb quickly. “I think this has gone quite far enough. You must be mad, both of you. How could it be Rowan? She’s been very ill, and was actually confined to her bed when the killings took place! I understand the pressure you must both be under, but I’m damned if I’ll let you get away with this....”
“That’s enough!” Hawk’s voice cut sharply across the sorcerer’s bluster. “That’s enough, sir Tomb. We have a job to do, and you’re not making this any easier for anyone. We know how the murders were committed, and we know why. And if you weren’t so blinded by your feelings for Rowan, you’d have probably worked it out for yourself long ago. Rowan, it’s time to go. Is there anything you want to take with you, or anything you want to say?”
“I don’t think so,” said Rowan.
“You’re not taking her anywhere!” said Tomb. “I told you; she’s ill. She’s in no condition to be locked up in some filthy cell. I won’t allow it. If she has to be kept somewhere, until she can be proved innocent, she can stay here, under house arrest.”
“I’m afraid we can’t allow that,” said Fisher. “We have to follow procedure.”
“This is all irrelevant anyway,” said Rowan. “None of you have the power to hold me anywhere.”
“Rowan, dear, let me handle this,” said Tomb quickly.
“Oh, shut up, Tomb.”
Tomb gaped at her as she rose unhurriedly to her feet and smiled defiantly at Hawk and Fisher. Something in the room’s atmosphere changed in that moment, and they could all feel it. Without drawing a weapon or moving a muscle, Rowan had suddenly become dangerous.
“That suppressor stone of yours won’t stop me, Captain Fisher. It’ll protect you and Hawk from my magic, but it’s not powerful enough to prevent me leaving any time I choose. I should have killed you both when you first came here. But I made the mistake of going by appearances instead of reputation. I really didn’t think you had the brains to work out what was going on. By the time I realised you’d earned your reputation, it was too late to attack you directly. That would have been too obvious. Even Tomb might have noticed something. I tried using the Dark Men against you, but I couldn’t match your training as fighters.”
“Rowan, what are you saying?” Tomb’s face was pale and slack with shock. He made vague, fluttering movements with his hands, and there was desperation in his voice. “You mustn’t listen to her, Captain Hawk. She’s not well, she doesn’t know what she’s saying....”
“Yes I do,” said Rowan, almost cheerfully. “I’m guilty, Tomb. Guilty as charged, guilty as hell. I killed Bode, and the four Beings, and I’ll kill a damn sight more before I’m done. There are no Gods on the Street of Gods, and I’ll make them pay for pretending otherwise. I needed them. I needed them to be real, and they let me down. I’ll see them all dead and rotting for that.” She smiled at Hawk and Fisher, and it was not a pleasant smile. “You want to arrest this body? Fine. Take it. I have plenty more, and this one’s almost through. I would have had to abandon it soon anyway; you just made the decision a little easier.”
“I’m afraid not,” said Hawk. “I thought you might try and leave your body for one of your Dark Men homunculi, so I had a word with Buchan earlier. He has the Exorcist Stone, Rowan. Until we decide otherwise, no magic will work in your vicinity. You’re stuck in your own body. And you’ll stay there until your trial.”
“What are you talking about?” said Tomb. “Nothing’s happened to the magic here. I’d know.” He gestured quickly with his left hand, and a lamp on the wall lit itself. Hawk looked at the bright flame, and his heart sank.
He and Fisher looked at each other. “That shouldn’t be possible,” said Hawk “Isobel, go and find Buchan. Make sure he’s got the Stone.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said a slow, harsh voice from the doorway. Everyone except Rowan looked round in time to see the Dark Man throw Buchan’s bloodied form into the drawing room. He hit the floor hard, and lay still. The Dark Man strode into the drawing room, the Exorcist Stone clutched firmly in one large bony hand. Two more Dark Men followed him into the room. They all wore the same shapeless furs, they were all heavily muscled, and they all had the same cold smile. Rowan’s smile.
“I’ve learned a lot since I first started working with Bode,” said Rowan calmly. “In the beginning, it was all I could do to handle one body at a time. But the more I practised, the easier it got. Now there’s no limit to how many homunculi I can control at one time.”
Tomb had knelt beside Buchan, and was checking his injuries with gentle hands. “Cracked ribs, broken right arm, cracked skull; probably concussion as well. How could you do this, Rowan? He was your friend.”
“He would have used the Stone on me,” said Rowan. “Luckily, for a famed duellist he was surprisingly easy to sneak up on from behind.”
“We have to get him a doctor, Rowan. I can’t heal serious injuries like these. He needs a specialist.”
Rowan looked at Buchan unemotionally. “He would have used the Stone on me.” She turned and looked at Hawk and Fisher again. “Keep your hands away from your weapons. I had a feeling you were getting too close to the truth. I had planned to have the Dark Men ambush you as you left here, but this has worked out just as well. Now I have all my enemies in one place.”
“Where did you get all the Dark Men from?” said Fisher, playing for time and mentally measuring the distance between her and the mystic.
Rowan smiled. “I inherited them from Bode. He really was very talented. After I’ve had a chance to acquire his notes and study them, I’m sure I’ll be able to create even more. I should even be able to produce copies of my original body, without the original’s defects. There’s a lot to be said for the Dark Men, but I always feel so much more comfortable in my own body.”
“Buchan needs a a doctor!” said Tomb. “He could die!”
“He never liked me,” said Rowan. “He never even looked at me.”
Tomb got slowly to his feet. “So. It is all true. Everything they said. And you’re going to kill everyone who knows your secret.”
“That’s right, Tomb.”
“What about me?”
“What about you?”
They looked at each other, and neither of them would drop their eyes. Hawk drew his axe, aimed, and threw it in one rapid movement while Rowan was distracted. The heavy blade flashed through the air and buried itself between the eyes of the Dark Man holding the Exorcist Stone. Rowan screamed in pain and rage as the homunculus crumpled to the floor. The Stone rolled away from his limp fingers. One of the other Dark Men started toward it, but Fisher moved quickly forward to block his way. She grinned nastily at him, sword at the ready before her. Rowan’s mouth set itself in a thin, flat line, and the two Dark Men advanced, one on Hawk and one on Fisher.
Hawk threw himself at the fallen homunculus, put a foot on the head to steady it, and jerked his axe free. He spun round just in time to parry a sword blow from the approaching Dark Man. Sparks flew as steel rang on steel again and again. Hawk was forced back, step by step, from the sheer force of the attack. The Dark Man pressed forward untiringly, and Hawk’s arm began to ache from the effort of parrying the blows. The axe was never intended as a defensive weapon. At any other time, he might have been able to turn aside the attack and launch one of his own, but he’d gone too long without rest or sleep and it was starting to catch up with him. His back slammed up against a wall, bringing him to a sudden halt. Finding extra strength from somewhere, he brought his axe across in a short vicious arc that had the Dark Man jumping backwards to avoid it, but he couldn’t find the speed to follow it up. He moved away from the wall, and the Dark Man was on him again. Hawk caught a glimpse of the Exorcist Stone lying on the floor, but it was a long way away, and besides, he didn’t even know how to activate it. He swung his axe double-handed, and tried to make himself some room to move in.