Chapter 71

Three days later I attended a Council meeting with Morgana as she explained the offer that had been made by Merlin to retrieve his journeyman.

“Whilst I believe thirteen female Mages is a good exchange rate which, along with the release of Mage Hermes from his torment, makes economic sense, I’m not happy that he appears to be capable of getting away with what was, to all intents, torture, murder and rape at so little personal cost,” Mage Cixi stated after Morgana made her case.

“This is why I brought it to the Council,” Morgana replied. “There are those here, including your aide Mage Gudrun, whose understanding and input I would seek on this matter.”

“Indeed, Mage Morgana as head of the Enforcement Office could simply have requested Pyotr’s release via me and my office of Senex veneficus penitus orbis,” Simon confirmed.

“For the release of thirteen women from the clutches of the Coalition I’m prepared to put aside my grievances for now,” Mage Gudrun spoke up.

“Well said,” murmured Mage Julia who was standing next to me.

“However you should not presume on my patience forever,” Gudrun added getting nods off a few of the Mages present.

“So noted with thanks, Mage Gudrun,” Morgana replied with a formal bow in Gudrun’s direction.

“It strikes me that we could place some form of monitoring ward similarly out of phase into Pyotr to spy upon Merlin, as he did with Hermes,” Mage Rutu posited.

“As I suspect it was Rasputin who placed the wards into Hermes, I rather doubt we’d get away with it,” Morgana replied.

“Even if we don’t, it might be amusing to hint that we had,” Gudrun added getting a few smiles off the assembled Mages.

“Might kill him out of hand if we did,” I added.

“We can but hope, John,” Gudrun replied.

“I’ll bear your interesting advice in mind, Mage Gudrun,” Morgana added with a wry smile.

“Assuming the Council agrees that this is a sound move by Mage Morgana,” Simon stated getting nods off all the Mages present. “Who and where still needs to be sorted.”

“I’m almost certainly going to use journeywoman Mage Róisín to hand Pyotr over as it will add insult to injury because she won’t need to bind him at all,” Morgana replied. “The where will probably be the Ritz Hotel in London where hopefully we’ll get another free meal off the Coalition,” she finished with a chuckle.

“Same people as last time?” Simon asked.

“With the addition of Róisín, yes,” Morgana replied.

“Permission to attend as well, Mage Morgana?” Gudrun requested.

“Are you sure, Mage Gudrun?” Morgana asked.

“Yes, Mage Morgana. Observing his humiliation will be a tiny payment towards levelling his debt to me,” she replied. “I’ll simply observe and not be drawn by any attempt to involve myself with Rasputin either.”

“Very well, Mage Gudrun, assuming no others have an objection?” Morgana noted.

“Any objections to Mage Morgana exchanging Pyotr for thirteen Mages held by the Coalition?” Simon formally asked out loud. “Passed unanimously,” he added after a moment’s silence. “You may proceed, Mage Morgana.”

“Thank you, Mage Simon, honoured Mages,” Morgana stated, bowing respectfully to the room.

Contacting the Coalition these days was fairly straightforward, they monitored diplomatic channels (as did we) and all it took was a visit to an Iranian Embassy with a coded phrase that brought about contact. I presumed that Morgana allowed Mage Roxanne to make the arrangements, although it may well have been Mage Julia.

As it was, a week to the day of our last meeting six Council Mages, Judas, plus Pyotr entered the same dining room of the Ritz hotel to face seven Coalition Mages, the five we’d met before, plus Elymas and Cornelius, plus thirteen nervous looking women.

“Ah, Morgan le Fay, a delight to see you again, as always,” the tall saturnine Elymas greeted her.

“As with you, Bariesu,” Morgana replied, giving Elymas his old name in return.

“I see you’ve brought Pyotr with you; I presume Hermes is ... functioning?” Elymas replied with a slight frown.

“Indeed so. A disturbing and barbaric use of wards to be sure, but we learned a lot and can see a few future uses for them,” Morgana replied her eyes flicking to the side at Pyotr almost too fast to be seen.

I carefully hid a smile as Rasputin and Merlin’s eyes narrowed as they gazed in silence at Morgana and then Pyotr.

“Let us eat as civilised folk do before we hand over hostages,” Elymas replied as he held out his hand indicating a much larger table.

“Please sit, ladies,” Morgana said to the women. “Do not worry; I believe this will go smoothly.”

“I’d like to examine Pyotr if I may,” Merlin requested.

“Of course, after we’ve eaten,” Morgana replied with a bright smile as Pyotr was marched by Róisín using the power of her mind to sit between her and Mage Gudrun.

“I’m presuming I’ll find nothing amiss with him?” Merlin went on.

“I’m pretty sure you won’t find anything. We were very ... careful with him,” Morgana replied with a demure smile. “Of course we’ll be doing the same for your captives,” she finished as the waiters served up various platters of meat and vegetables.

“No issues with Hermes?” Rasputin asked looking rather nervous.

“None at all,” Morgana replied nonchalantly. “Why?”

“I wasn’t sure if the instructions were simple enough,” he almost snarled.

“Oh, we can read crayon,” chuckled Arch.

“And decipher cartoon drawings too,” sniggered Roxanne.

“I believe he’s a little concerned about us not spotting that little mimetic illusion spell on one of the wards, my Lady,” Judas chuckled, watching Rasputin go red-faced at being mocked.

“Childs-play,” murmured Morgana. “I can do much better.”

“So I noted,” Judas chuckled in return.

“I’m really going to have to insist on checking over Pyotr...” Merlin began as he got to his feet only to stop dead in his tracks as Róisín made Pyotr lift a steak knife up to his own throat, drawing blood slightly.

“Please sit,” Morgana ordered with steel in her voice. “You’ll get your chance when we have the Ladies in our custody. Until then, he’s ours.”

“Why are you so concerned over your journeyman, Merlin?” Mage Edward asked. “It’s not like Mage Morgana breaks her word.”

“Indeed,” murmured Elymas who was watching with interest.

“I have little reason to trust her,” Merlin grated out. “She may have implanted a suicide command within him which might endanger us all.”

“Oh, to suggest such a thing. I’m shocked, truly I’m shocked,” Arch sniggered.

“Aye, to suggest we’d stoop as low as he would,” Roxanne mocked.

“Have you, Mage Morgana?” Elymas asked. “With all due respect of course.”

“With all due respect, no. Pyotr is probably in far better condition than your captives,” Morgana replied sweetly.

“Indeed, I’d defy anyone here to find anything amiss with him,” Judas chuckled with a wink aimed directly at Rasputin.

A clearly enraged Merlin forced himself to sit whilst we carried on with our meal and a clearly relieved Pyotr was allowed to lower the knife.

“Have you considered our offer to aid with any actions against the Nephilim?” Elymas asked Morgana after the meal had ended.

“As I told Merlin, we have no need for any assistance at the moment, but I have informed Mage Simon and we will bear it in mind,” Morgana replied.

“Thank you, now shall we proceed?” Elymas acknowledged.

“Of course, Mage Elymas. I’ve requested Jude to examine the ladies; you may choose one of your party to examine Pyotr, if that’s agreeable?” Morgana proposed.

“Eminently sensible,” Elymas agreed. “Merlin, you may examine your journeyman now.”

“May I assist?” Rasputin requested.

“You may not, unless you wish to take Merlin’s place,” Morgana replied.

Merlin gave a short shake of his head as he marched over to where Pyotr was sitting, still flanked by Gudrun and Róisín. Judas simply ambled over to where the ladies were and appeared to be meditating although I could sense him giving them a very detailed scan.

“Very sophisticated and powerful tracking ward linked to them all. I’ve disabled it, but it would enable them to be tracked across worlds if they remained in proximity to each other,” he murmured to Morgana.

“I ‘hope’ you disabled it, Jude?” she asked.

“Yes, but they won’t know that until the ladies leave the room and it remains,” he chuckled as we watched Merlin still examining Pyotr.

“Any time today, Merlin,” Arch finally said sarcastically.

“We’re happy,” Morgana said to Elymas.

“As am I,” he replied. “But it isn’t up to me,” he finished, watching Merlin with narrowed eyes.

Finally a red faced and incandescently angry Merlin returned from Pyotr to join us.

“Told you, you wouldn’t find anything,” Morgana said sweetly.

“I don’t trust you,” he replied.

“Which says more about your paranoia than me,” chuckled Morgana.

“Is it a deal or no?” Elymas asked Merlin.

“It’s a deal,” Merlin grated out.

“Good, now I suggest we simply let the prisoners cross the floor to the other party and then leave without recourse to any recriminations or violence,” Elymas stated.

“Agreed,” Morgana stated.

“Over here ladies,” Arch requested.

“Off you go little man,” Róisín said with a grin, sending Pyotr off towards Merlin on the opposite side of the table from the women.

The exchange went without a hitch and Gudrun and Róisín escorted the women through the door to a portal which took them to a secure unit that Mage Henry’s people used initially to hold Coalition prisoners, but which had some comfortable quarters attached.

I was amused at Rasputin’s chagrined face when he discovered the tracking ward remained in the room when the women left. Nor did Merlin appear to be any happier with Pyotr and it appeared Rasputin was of no help there either.

“I believe we’ll be leaving now,” Morgana announced. “We have accomplished what we set out to do and I believe in such circumstances we can do business together again.”

“Indeed, Mage Morgana. You certainly appear to have got a bargain,” Elymas replied, eyeing Merlin and an increasingly irate Rasputin.

“Thank you, Mage Elymas,” Morgana replied politely.

“Did you really do something to Pyotr?” he asked quietly so as not to be overheard.

“No, but we alluded that we had and they would never believe we hadn’t anyway,” Morgana chuckled.

“Thought as much and they wouldn’t believe me if I told them what you said either,” he replied with a wry smile before wandering over to his comrades.

“I know, that’s what made the whole thing simply wonderful,” Morgana said to his retreating back.

We all filed out in silence, most of us grinning though Morgana herself looked calm and composed and walked through London until we reached the London office of the Department for Investigative Studies and Roxanne’s office.