Shadow Spell by Caro King

anything about the desertion of ex-Guard Floyd, I hope?’
    Skerridge beamed. Innocent didn’t come close.
    â€˜I see.’ Strood smiled indulgently, looking almost affable, even allowing for the quartz eye. ‘Well, it won’t get you anywhere. Ninevah Redstone is going to die and everyone else with her. I believe people are gathering at Hilfian? Well, my army will start there. And once they’ve torn Hilfian apart, they can sort out the rest of the Drift.’
    Skerridge opened his mouth, but Strood put up a hand to stop him.
    â€˜Don’t talk to me about consequences. I’m well aware that killing the Seven will reduce the concentration of defined magic and so undermine the integrity of the Land, thus inducing it to collapse into its raw state at an accelerated rate.’
    Skerridge glared, his red eyes burning like coals as the evening light began to fade.
    â€˜And the weaker the Land gets, so the weaker the last remaining shreds of the Seven will become, and so the more Land will die. It’s a perpetuating situation, a circle of death, see? Or hadn’t you worked that bit out yet?’ Strood smiled. ‘And there’s more, of course. Even consequenceshave consequences and the death of the Drift will have its own, too. Look at it this way: if the Raw has been shaped into the Land by all the desires and dreads of the Quick, uncovered from their deepest hearts over millions of years, then what will happen when it is taken away?’
    Skerridge looked blank. Deliberately. Inside he was struggling to imagine what would happen to a world where all the agonies of hope and love and hate and fear had nowhere to go. All that electric emotion hanging around with nothing to do except …’
    It would be like a steam pipe with no vent. He shuddered.
    â€˜She’ll stop ya,’ he said, his voice heavy on the evening air.
    â€˜She’s already too late,’ chuckled Strood. ‘Bogeyman Rainbow has made a fine job of frying Quick in the Widdern, and the Sanctuary must be hanging on by a thread. Bogeyman Rope is wiping out Senta Melana’s remains and should be finishing the task very shortly
…’
    Skerridge kept his face as deadpan as possible.
    â€˜â€¦ and Bogeyman Pigwit has dealt with Nemus Sturdy – oh, by the way, I made him Chief Bogeyman you know, he did such a fine job. So all in all it’s looking good.’
    â€˜Azork …’
    â€˜Won’t last the night,’ said Strood airily.
    â€˜Vispilio?’
    â€˜Oh, I’m leaving him be for the moment, after all, he’s hardly a threat. But I have plans.’
    â€˜Simeon Dark?’ Skerridge grinned. ‘Yer carn’ do a lot about Simeon Dark cos first off ’e’s a livin’ sorcerer …’
    â€˜And how much use is a sorcerer if he doesn’t know what he is?’ Strood leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. ‘For Dark to survive the plague that killed every other sorcerer, he must be so well hidden it is as if he has ceased to exist altogether. And no hiding place is foolproof if someone knows about it, and that includes the one who’s doing the hiding! Because if
he
knows, then
someone
knows and if
someone
knows then so does the world. And that would break the spell at once. Clever.’ Strood sounded almost admiring.
    â€˜â€¦ an’ second,’ went on Skerridge carefully, ‘ya don’ know where ’e is.’
    Strood leaned forward, his quartz eye glittering.
    â€˜Don’t I?’ he said softly.
    Silence settled over the scene like a blanket. The shadows had deepened now and Skerridge’s eyes were red-hot holes in the twilight as he glowered at Strood. His heart sank because in that long moment he knew what Strood had done.
    Strood smiled. ‘I think you will find that knowledge can be an uncomfortable thing. If I know anything about it, which I do, you are now worrying about what