‘Do you have it?’

That caused the wizard to laugh. ‘No! But what I wouldn’t give for just a

taste

!’ He continued more soberly. ‘Covenant actively seeks those with magical sensing gifts, and currently the number in our ranks could easily be counted on the fingers of one hand. I’d think myself extremely fortunate if I found one more in the whole of this new alliance we’ve formed.’

Kutch, still looking confounded, muttered, ‘It can’t be.’

‘When we first saw the patrician,’ Caldason remembered, ‘back in your hamlet; you knew he had a protective shield long before I did.’

‘Perhaps I just have better eyesight, or…’ Kutch trailed off, lacking conviction.

‘Can we do anything to establish this, Phoenix?’ Karr asked.

‘With the boy’s permission: a test. It’s not to be taken as definitive, but it’s a good indicator. Do you mind, Kutch?’

‘No, I’d like to find out.’

‘Very well.’

The magician left the room by its smaller door. Seconds later he returned. Behind him filed the six masked, grey-clad guardians they had seen downstairs. They lined up against a wall, facing the table. Kutch stood and moved a few paces towards them. Phoenix laid a hand on his shoulder.

‘Five of these men are genuine, flesh and blood members of Covenant,’ he explained. ‘One is a glamour. Can you tell which?’

The half-dozen were absolutely identical, and seemed very real. They all had sweat on their brows. They blinked with normal regularity. It was even possible to see their face masks creasing slightly as they breathed in and out.

For Kutch, the test had unpleasant echoes of the executions he’d seen, which made it hard for him to clear his mind.

Perhaps Phoenix realised this. ‘Relax,’ he advised, ‘take your time. There’s no penalty for failing.’

Kutch studied the unmoving figures, his eyes sweeping the line. He looked from one to the next, taking in everything about them. At last he said, ‘That one,’ and pointed. ‘Second from the right.’

‘You’re sure?’

The boy nodded.

Phoenix made a complex gesture. Slowly at first, but with gathering pace, the chosen figure loosened its hold on quasi-reality and flew apart, so many billion grains of golden sand. The flaming particles dissolved.

At Phoenix’s signal the remaining five guardians turned and quietly left.

‘Not conclusive, as I said, but certainly indicative. How did it feel? I mean, what was it about the decoy that made you pick it?’

Kutch frowned. ‘Nothing special really. It just seemed… obvious, I suppose. Like recognising a lame horse in a herd.’

‘This was why Domex apprenticed you,’ Karr said. ‘He saw that you had the gift. Sadly, he didn’t live long enough to help you develop it.’

‘Now we can do that,’ Phoenix promised. ‘Covenant could train you, discipline your power and teach you to hone it.’

‘And there’d be a place for you in the Resistance as well, Kutch,’ the patrician added. ‘The plan we hatched, the one your master was instrumental in drawing up; you can be a part of that, if you’d consider it.’

‘He’s only a boy,’ Caldason complained, an edge to his voice. ‘Don’t push him.’

‘There are younger in the Resistance. Anyway, the decision is his. What do you say, Kutch?’

‘Well…’

‘You should have time to think on it, like Reeth. Will you do that?’

‘Yes… yes, I will.’

‘Good. And perhaps what we have to tell you about the greater plan might help you both make up your minds.’

‘You’ll never get your precious revolution started,’ Caldason reckoned. ‘Even with the prospect of this fanciful old-time magic and child spotters.’

‘Revolution? Who said anything about a revolution? Gods, no. We have something much more creative in mind.’

19

‘It’s time you kept your half of the bargain and started being honest with

me

,’ Caldason said. ‘If not an uprising, what

is

your plan?’

Kutch, Phoenix and Disgleirio, also seated around the ancient, solid table in the abandoned warehouse, fell silent. They looked to Karr.

‘Not just my plan,’ he corrected mildly. ‘Many have contributed.’

‘Whoever dreamed it up,’ Caldason came back impatiently, ‘what is it?’

‘Let me put it this way…’ the patrician began, making Caldason sigh. ‘When one’s homeland is conquered and occupied, the first instinct is to fight, to throw the invaders out. You know that feeling, Reeth. But how do you do it when the enemy’s too powerful? And when another, equally powerful, is waiting to step in and take over? Fighting against one empire is really fighting against both, do you see? That’s why a much larger slice of the populace isn’t actively with the Resistance. They don’t see the point.’

‘The politician’s curse; long-windedness,’ Caldason grumbled. Karr took that in good part and smiled. The Qalochian added, more seriously, ‘What you’ve just said sounds like a counsel of despair.’

‘No, it’s simply expressing the problem. If giving up isn’t an option, and it isn’t with any of us here and thousands of others, then another solution has to be found.’

‘And you think you’ve found it.’

‘Yes. Many of us don’t want to be under the rule of either empire. Well, then, we won’t. We’ll take ourselves out of the picture.’

‘Life’s not a kids’ ball game. You can’t say you’re not playing anymore.’

‘We’re aware of that,’ Karr replied, adding stingingly, ‘As are the families of many who have given their lives for the cause.’

‘All right, cheap gibe. Sorry. But what

do

you intend doing?’

‘Simply put: not to stay and fight, but to go.’

‘Go?’ Kutch said, plainly confused. ‘Go where?’

‘Some place where we can concentrate our dissident forces and stand apart from the influence of both empires.’

‘That’s insane,’ Caldason reckoned. ‘Where’s the sense in making sitting ducks of yourselves?’

Karr was unruffled. ‘Remember the commune I took you to? They’re good people, but they got it wrong. You can’t be apart while surrounded by hostility. Not if you expect to prosper, anyway.’

‘Exactly my point.’

‘And you’re right. It was the lesson I hoped you’d take from the communards. Success or failure turns on location.’

‘I’d like to know how you expect to get around it.’

‘We’ve given this a lot of thought, Reeth, and while we’re not saying it would be easy, we think it can be done.’ He leaned closer, elbows on the table, hands knitted. ‘Let me explain.’

Phoenix raised a hand and stifled Karr’s flow. ‘Your pardon,’ he said. ‘But before any more talk I thought refreshments might be in order.’

Nobody objected, and he called in one of the grey-clad acolytes and instructed him. The man returned with the rest of his company, bearing platters and flasks. They laid bread, fruits and meat on the table, alongside wine, ale and water. Everybody helped themselves to food and drink. Caldason took only water.

Karr sipped his wine and resumed. ‘Our original thought was to annex a chunk of land somewhere here in Bhealfa. Something remote, maybe with a shoreline. We rejected that quite early on, for obvious reasons.’

‘At least you had that much sense,’ Caldason commented dryly.

‘Then we looked at the possibility of somewhere beyond these shores; part of another country. But of course we’d need control of the whole area we occupied. So it had to be an island.’

‘It may have escaped your attention, but we’re already on one.’

‘It can’t be Bhealfa,’ Disgleirio told him. ‘There are too many forces to be overcome here. As well as being somewhat too large for our purposes at this stage.’

‘Wherever you choose you’d still face opposition on every side. More so on an island because you’d leave yourself open to being cut off and starved out.’

‘Not if we’re totally self-sufficient,’ Karr said.