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one I’d hit with the stun focus was stirring and moaning. The other had rolled over on to his side and was throwing up. ‘Get your mates and gate. If you pull anything like this on me a second time, you won’t be around for a third. Understand?’
    James nodded quickly. ‘Yeah. Okay.’
    ‘Get lost.’
    James stumbled to his feet and hurried over to the two adepts. I watched patiently as he started opening a gate. ‘James?’ I said when he was a minute into the spell.
    I saw the muscles in James’s back tense. The blue light around his hand flickered and he nearly dropped the spell. Slowly he turned, shoulders hunched, the whites of his eyes showing.
    I flicked the beam of the torch down where the two adepts had fallen. ‘They dropped their clubs.’
    James stared at me, then down at the shadowy outlines of the clubs where they lay on the ground.
    ‘Pick them up, please,’ I said. ‘I’m not cleaning up after you.’
    Slowly James obeyed, holding the wooden cudgels awkwardly in his injured hand, then went back to opening the gate. By the time he was done both adepts were on their feet, one supporting the other. The three of them shot scared looks at me as they shuffled through the gate and out of sight. I watched it close behind them. The blue light faded and I was alone in the darkness.
    ‘Idiots,’ I said into the night. I checked to make sure no one else was coming, then walked to the edge of the ravine. Hermes blinked into position behind me, trotting at my heels. I pressed two fingers to one of the roots beneath the oak tree, waited for the signature of the open connection and spoke. ‘Arachne? It’s Alex. We need to talk.’
    Usually Arachne’s lair is one of the few places I can relax. Its wards and defences are extensive, and I know that Arachne’s been steadily improving them over the last few years. It’s not just paranoia: magical creatures like Arachne have no protection under the Concord, and if any mages decide to pick a fight with her, no one on the Council is going to do anything about it. Arachne’s only defences are those she creates herself, and though she never talks about it, I know she takes it seriously. Sitting here in the cavern, I was almost certainly safer than I was in my own shop.
    Except that for the first time in years, being here wasn’t making me feel safe. Sure, I could hide here – for a while. But not for ever.
    ‘That’s the story,’ I said. I was sitting on one of the sofas, next to some bolts of red and blue silk. Hermes had hopped up on to another sofa and was watching with ears pricked.
    ‘I see,’ Arachne said. Arachne is a spider the size of an SUV, black-haired with highlights of cobalt-blue; she’s probably my oldest friend and one of the very few people I really trust. She’d been working on a dress when I’d arrived, but as soon as I’d started to give her the news she’d put it down and moved in close. Now she was resting in such a position that her front legs were only a couple of feet away, near enough that I could smell the herbal scent of her body. She’d been listening for twenty minutes, speaking only to ask for clarification. ‘Do you know anything further about your three attackers?’
    ‘Honestly?’ I said. ‘Right now I don’t much care. They’re small fry. I’ve got bigger problems.’
    ‘Small problems that aren’t dealt with can become larger problems,’ Arachne said. ‘Besides, I suspect the two may be related.’
    I shrugged.
    ‘It concerns me that they knew to stage an ambush here,’ Arachne said.
    ‘Yeah, they knew where to find me,’ I said. ‘But if I don’t deal with this Council proposal, then it won’t matter that they knew where to find me, because inside of a week I won’t be here, or anywhere else in the country, or maybe not even alive. I do not have much room to manoeuvre here!’
    Arachne looked at me patiently. ‘There’s no need to be snappish.’
    I sighed, passing a hand in front of my face.