23

      His footsteps were lonely.

      Odd that the word would occur to him like that. ‘Lonely.’ Up here, though, on the rooftop, his footsteps couldn’t be anything but lonely. He didn’t have anyone to talk to. Didn’t have anyone to wait with. It was just Sebastian up here, his coat flapping in the breeze, and being alone was a feeling he was just going to have to get used to.

      Looking back, in the years to come, he didn’t think he was going to like this period of his life.

      He walked to the open skylight and looked down into the dark bowels of the building. The ground was littered with rubble and debris, like a thin, flaky scab covering a wound. Sebastian didn’t like being perched on a roof while there were life-and-death struggles going on below him, but he was here for a reason. He had a mission. A calling. He couldn’t afford to get distracted.

      A door crashed open somewhere in the shadows below him, and Sebastian dropped to his belly to get a better look. Kathryn Ether, a teacher from the Academy, sprinted into view. A dark shape coalesced before her and she stopped so suddenly her feet flew from under her. The darkness became a shape, a figure, a man. Ether scrambled back, and the man – long-haired, with burning orange eyes, dressed in chain mail – stalked after her.

      Sebastian found himself tensing, but fought the urge to jump down. Rule One was don’t get distracted, and he figured getting horribly killed by a chain-mail-wearing lunatic would be a pretty big distraction, all things considered.

      Then Auger ran from cover, holding a thick metal spear, and Sebastian actually sighed with relief. Arriving in the nick of time. Immediately, Auger’s friends Kase and Mahala darted from their hiding places, and they sprinted in from three directions. The burning-eyed man saw them coming, and roared. When the distance between them closed to five steps, Auger plunged the spear into the ground. Kase and Mahala did the same.

      The spears started glowing. Threads of energy passed between them, trapping the burning-eyed man in a triangle. His roar of rage turned to a roar of panic. Mahala backed off. Kase too. Only Auger stayed where he was, eyes locked.

      The spears grew brighter, the threads of energy getting thicker – and then the burning-eyed man arched his back and screamed, and the energy poured into him and turned him to ash.

      The spears stopped glowing.

      Auger ran to Ether and helped her stand. The others came over. Sebastian couldn’t hear what was being said. He had no idea who the burning-eyed man was, no idea why he had been after a teacher, but none of that mattered. Another monster had been stopped. Another threat had been averted.

      He watched Mahala and Auger walk away with Ether, leaving Kase to gather up the spears and head in the opposite direction.

      Sebastian didn’t know an awful lot about Mahala, but he’d done his homework on Kase. The funny one of the group, the one who used jokes to mask his unhappiness, the one who tried to hide the fact that his father had inadvertently formed a cult that worshipped Darquesse.

      This made him interesting.

      Sebastian followed Kase for a little under ten minutes. It was not easy, travelling across rooftops. It was even less easy to travel across rooftops while keeping track of the turns Kase was making. Eventually, Kase came to a house on Morwenna Row and sneaked in the back door. When he came out a few minutes later, he wasn’t holding the spears. He hurried off in the direction of the school, and Sebastian watched him go. He had arrived at his destination.

      He jumped down, went to the back door and tried the handle. It moved easily. The door opened. Sebastian slipped inside.

      Kase’s kitchen was a mess. Food-encrusted plates were stacked high in the sink. The table was covered in papers and battered notebooks. The floor needed a sweep, and a wash, and possibly a new floor.

      Kase’s father was in the living room. Bennet Troth sat on the sofa, his head down, the TV on but muted. He had the same dark hair as his son, but like his house it looked like it needed a wash.

      Sebastian stepped in. “Hello, Bennet,” he said calmly.

      Bennet looked up and froze, his eyes wide, his mouth open.

      “I’m not here to hurt you,” said Sebastian. “I’m here to talk. We have something in common, actually. If it’d be OK with you, I was hoping we could sit and have a chat. What do you say?”

      Bennet blinked. His eyes were glassy, his face red. On the table before him was a half-empty bottle of wine.

      “Bennet?”

      Bennet got to his feet and immediately stumbled, clicking his fingers, throwing sparks and sudden flames, but was too drunk to cultivate them into anything useful.

      Sebastian walked forward quickly, hands out. “I won’t hurt you, I’m just here to talk, I swear.”

      Bennet lashed out, a punch that missed without Sebastian even having to duck. “Away from me!” he roared. “Get away!”

      Sebastian backed off. “OK, Bennet, OK, whatever you want.”

      “What I want?” Bennet raged. “What I want? I want my wife back!”

      “I’m sorry?”

      Bennet charged and Sebastian sidestepped, his coat flapping like a bullfighter’s cape, and Bennet hit the wall and spun.

      “I think we need to calm down,” Sebastian said.

      “You kidnapped her! Bring her back!”

      “I didn’t kidnap anyone.”

      “I’ll kill you, you hear me?”

      “If your wife is missing, you should alert the City Guard.”

      Bennet sneered. “They’d never help me. They laugh at me. They hate me.”

      “Does Kase know?”

      “Didn’t tell him,” Bennet said, emotion crumpling his face. “Don’t want to worry the boy. But you … you’re going to tell me where she is.”

      “I don’t know where she is, but if I help you find her, you’ve got to help me, all right? Do we have a deal?”

      “Yes. Yes, anything.”

      “OK then. Do you know who would want to kidnap her? Do you have any enemies?”

      And then it was like all of Bennet’s fury abandoned him, and he staggered to the sofa and collapsed on to it. “Too many,” he said, tears in his eyes. “Everyone knows. They know about …”

      “They know you worship Darquesse?” Sebastian asked gently.

      Bennet nodded. “I get rocks through my window. I … I lost my job. People around here, they hate me. My poor Odetta, she doesn’t even see Darquesse the way I do, but they still … they still went after her.”

      Sebastian hesitated, then took a step closer. “What happened?”

      Bennet looked up. “Who are you?”

      “You can call me the Plague Doctor,” said Sebastian. “Like you, I see Darquesse differently from other people.”

      There was a knock on the front door.

      Bennet’s eyes widened. “Odetta!” he said, and lunged out of the room. Sebastian watched from cover as Bennet pulled the door open to reveal a pimply-faced boy.