“So, where are we going again?” Sophie asked, sulkily.
“No, forget that,” Chrysanthemum gave Celia a hard look. “Why are we going there?”
“Look, Sophie needs to evade captors on all sides. Right?”
“Well…yeah?” Sophie tried to figure it out.
“So,” Celia smiled triumphantly, “we need an expert in avoiding capture.”
“What?”
“Oh…” Chrysanthemum groaned. “You mean her.”
“Yup,” Celia grinned. “I mean her.”
“Thank you kindly for explaining that to me,” Sophie snapped. “I’m really glad you didn’t keep any information from me.”
“Look, you have to stay hidden. Right?”
“Right.”
“So we need someone who has spent their whole life being hidden. Right?”
“Um…”
“There we are then,” Celia nodded. “We have to find Tala.”
“Who?”
“Tala Swallow. You’ll see. If we can find her.”
“What is she like?” Sophie asked.
“Amazing,” Celia grinned.
“Irritating,” Chrysanthemum muttered.
“Talented.”
“Arrogant.”
“Cheerful.”
“Frustratingly optimistic.”
Celia put her hands on her hips and looked at Chrysanthemum.
“You just don’t like her, do you?”
“Tala is…Tala,” Chrysanthemum sighed. “She is hard for a scholar to deal with.”
“Why?” Sophie glanced from one to the other.
Celia sighed, making a face at Chrysanthemum.
“Tala has amazing talent. She’s an impressive magician. Thing is…no one has ever trained her.”
“Oh,” Sophie said, dismissively. “Self-taught.”
“Yeah,” Celia shrugged. “Scholars don’t like that. Bureaucrats don’t like that. Besides, she adds insult to injury.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, there are people who have studied for years and years and have trained and trained and trained to become good. Tala is naturally brilliant, self-taught, better than most of them…and twelve.”
“Twelve!”
“Yep,” Celia grinned. “She’s interesting.”
“Yes,” Chrysanthemum frowned. “She’s annoying.”
Sophie smiled. “I like her already.”
Chrysanthemum stopped the car in a gravel car park beside a forest. Sophie looked at the rows of trees without much enthusiasm.
“Oh.”
“She’ll be in there,” Celia promised. “Bastard would know, if anyone would.”
“And how do we find a girl amazing at evading capture?” Sophie demanded.
Celia shrugged. “The way I’ve always found her. Wander about and shout a bit.”
Sophie and Chrysanthemum looked at her with identical expressions.
“Waving coloured scarves helps,” Celia offered. “Look, Tala will come to us if she wants to. Otherwise, forget it. We could never catch her.”
Sophie stared. “So…we’re going to blunder about a forest shouting for someone who might not be there, in the vague hope that they will deem us worthy of their presence?”
Celia considered this. “Yes.”
“Oh. That’s alright then. Shall we get started?”
“Tala!” Celia yelled. “Tala, please? Come on! It’s me!”
Sophie sighed, stuffing her hands into her pockets. Celia had been at this for nearly an hour. Sophie was bored and fighting to ignore the little voice inside her head, an internal alarm clock saying, “Hey, it’s biscuit time!”
“Celia, give it up,” Chrysanthemum yawned, in a remarkably lady-like manner. “She’s not coming out.”
“She will,” Celia insisted. “She has to. Tala! Tala, please!”
Sophie looked around at the trees…the muddy ground….a few bushes…some bracken….and something that didn’t quite fit. She stared at that spot, willing it to reveal its secrets.
“What is wrong?” she asked herself. “What is wrong?”
She looked away and looked back quickly. There! The light reflecting off a puddle was slightly refracted.
Oh, come on, she grumbled, inwardly. This is not a physics lesson. Can’t you even think in simple words? The light is bent would have sufficed perfectly.
But that aside, Sophie was staring hard at the space. She had to blink occasionally and each time she did, she had to start again. But she could see it. A shape. A humanoid shape.
“Tala Swallow,” she breathed.
And suddenly the girl had always been there.
She was small, probably just passing five foot high, with urchin-cut hair, shining eyes and tattered clothing. She didn’t exactly smile, but she didn’t have a face that made it possible to look particularly miserable.
“Tala,” Celia sighed, relieved. “Why didn’t you come out?”
“Who’s she?” Tala asked, pointing at Sophie.
Celia shrugged. “Night Princess. Fugitive.”
Tala nodded. “Protection?”
“Yes.”
“Necromancers and Society?”
“Obviously.”
“Safe house?”
“No.”
“Good,” Tala smiled. “I’m coming.”
“Say, what?” Sophie stared. “Just like that?”
Tala frowned. “Why waste time? Celia isn’t lying. You need help. Do I need to spend time with small talk?”
Sophie shrugged. “How do you turn invisible?”
“Chameleon trick,” Tala smiled. “Combination of medicinal science-magic and elemental powers. I focus on earth powers.”
“Why?”
“Must untrustworthy, most dangerous, of all elemental powers. But most fascinating.”
“And…what? What can you do with it?” Sophie asked, eagerly.
Tala shrugged, blasé. “Oh, you know. Grow plants, if I concentrate. Move rocks. Limited telekinesis. Never fall. That sort of thing. And my perfect defence system, naturally. Well…imperfect defence system.”
“Of course,” Chrysanthemum murmured, “nothing major. Just a lot of powers many elementals can’t learn with a lifetime of training.”
“What is the defence system?” Sophie asked, ignoring Chrysanthemum.
Tala made a face. “It’s…complicated. And very dangerous. Possibly fatal.”
“A fatal defence system? As in, fatal for the defended?”
“It’s a fifty-fifty chance,” Tala admitted. “So I only use it when fifty-fifty outranks a hundred per cent chance. Fair, don’t you think?”
“Ye-es,” Sophie bit her lip. “Could I learn?”
Tala looked at her. “No.”
“Oh.”
Celia smiled. “Tala…are you coming?”
Tala nodded. “How did you find me?”
“Bastard still has contacts.”
“Ah,” Tala’s face flickered. “Celia, who can we still trust? If I join you three, I’m running from the law again.”
“They never catch you,” Celia pointed out.
Tala shrugged. “No. But…who can we still trust?”
“People who owe me,” Celia sighed. “People who owe me too many favours. Or people who like me, though those are few and far between. Or people who hate the Society.”
Tala nodded slowly. “Bastard…Max….I’d say old Oliver as well….Kurt?”
“Yeah, maybe,” Celia looked doubtful. “But that’s a risky one. There are a few others. Old friends. Old alliances. Old debts.”
Tala tapped her fingers together thoughtfully. “So here we have a Warrior, a Linguist, an Elemental and a Necromancer…”
“Ok,” Sophie interrupted, “if everyone keeps saying I’m a Necromancer, why am I even bothering to try elemental magic?”
“Because, my dear girl, elemental magic won’t get you murdered,” Chrysanthemum gave her a patronizing smile.
Sophie pulled a face behind her back.
“Anyway,” Tala continued. “You won’t get a Sensitive running on missions but all three of us have alliances there. So we only lack contacts in one division.”
“Travellers,” Celia gestured helplessly. “Reckless, moody, irritating Travellers. I know very few that I can trust.”
Tala smiled. “I think you’ve forgotten someone.”
“No,” Celia complained. “Don’t make me talk to him again!”
“Who?” Sophie demanded. “Who?”
“He’s irritating, arrogant, painfully cheerful when you want to be miserable, complaining….”
“Sounds a bit like Chrysanthemum’s description of Tala,” Sophie remarked.
Both Celia and Chrysanthemum glared at her. Tala burst out laughing. The sound was like chattering birds.
“He’s a friend of mine. Actually, that’s a lie. But he’ll do. You never know when you might need a Traveller.”
“What do Travellers actually do?” Sophie queried, getting fed up of feeling confused all the time.
“He’s a Teleporter, if that helps.”
“Wow!” Sophie cried.
“Ugh,” Celia groaned. “Alright, Tala. We’ll wait here. If you absolutely must, go and fetch him.”
“Who?” Sophie asked, for the umpteenth time.
“Blue Last.”