Eight Kings (The King's Watch Book 6) Read online

  ‘The Cold War was hotting up,’ she continued. ‘Just before the Soviet Union imploded, everything went a bit crazy. The director called me into his office and told me to go to Berlin and evaluate a potential asset.’

  Asset. They still use that word to talk about agents. Makes it less personal if they’re uncovered and tortured, I suppose. ‘Why you?’ I said. ‘I thought you never saw the light of day at GCHQ.’

  ‘The prospect’s price was very high. MI6 would only meet his price if his product was genuine, and I was the only one who could both evaluate the product and get into West Berlin undercover at short notice. There was a bridge tournament on, and Six asked a retired diplomat to pull out. I replaced him.’

  Dad gave a humourless smile. ‘I thought she was in Brighton, until she got back.’

  Mother ignored him. ‘The secrecy, the deception, the adrenaline. It was all quite … stimulating. Intoxicating. After I’d pronounced the prospect genuine, the MI6 handler won his bet.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  She dropped her eyes and pulled at the knees of her lightweight floral trousers. ‘I found out later that he’d bet the residency chief that he could get the freaky geek into bed. I’d never heard the word geek before.’

  There was an awkward silence. My skin felt so itchy that I expected dancing cockroaches to crawl up the table legs and put on a show. Hearing about your parents’ sex life is bad enough; listening to your mother confess to being someone else’s casual conquest is infinitely worse, believe me. I shuddered and tried to be a grownup.

  I crossed my legs and said, ‘Sounds like #MeToo. Was reporting him an option back then?’

  She snorted and looked out of the window at the drive. The taxi that had brought Sofía to blow up the party had left deep ruts in the gravel. She frowned. ‘It was a mistake, not an assault. We’d both have been forcibly retired for jeopardising the operation if I’d said anything.’ She turned to Dad. ‘Your father could tell the moment I got back. The guilt was all over me like a rash, and I lasted five minutes before I confessed. He told me not to mind, but I’d broken our vows, hadn’t I?’

  ‘And you took that as carte blanche, did you, Dad?’

  He looked sheepish.

  As a young man, I’d once asked him if he’d always been faithful, and he’d put on his trust-me-I’m-serious face. ‘I’ve never loved any woman but your mother,’ he’d said.

  I’d been naive enough not to realise that he’d answered a different question, and I never had the courage to ask again. Scared of the answer, I think. With good reason.

  ‘He was very careful,’ said Mother, with a mixture of gratitude and loathing.

  ‘And then I went to Spain,’ said Dad.

  I clicked my fingers. ‘Of course. Cranwell. I’d just enrolled for officer training and you went to try your luck on the Costa del Crime.’ I’d been eighteen, my full sister a decade younger.

  ‘It was worth it,’ he said. ‘Financially. And then I met Mercedes.’

  He opened his mouth to continue the story, until a polite knock on the door stopped him. He started to get up, and Mother reached out a hand. ‘Leave it to Conrad. This is his house now.’

  Dad subsided, and I got up and limped to the door. I opened it a crack and found Myfanwy, our resident Welsh Druid, housekeeper, Herbalist and romantic. She was holding three glasses and a bottle of the best brandy.

  ‘You’re a lifesaver,’ I said, taking the goods. ‘How’s it going out there in the garden?’

  She grinned. ‘They talked about the food for all of ten seconds, then Vicky’s Dad had a go at her for spilling the beans. Furious, he was. Miss Parkes stepped in, and it all kicked off big time. They’re loving it.’

  As was Myfanwy. Still, she doesn’t get out much: she’s under a Confinement Order and can’t leave the village of Clerkswell, but that’s another story. ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ I said. ‘I hadn’t planned any entertainment, so this is a bonus, isn’t it?’

  ‘Sorry, Conrad, it’s a shame an’ all that, but you should have seen the look on your face. I so wish we had CCTV here. Maybe a Necromancer could…’

  ‘…Shh! Any sign of Mina and Sofía?’

  Mum and Dad had got up to join us, and Myfanwy tilted her head to look at my father. I think she was wondering what Mercedes had seen in him. Satisfied, she gave a small nod. ‘They’re in the library. I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but I’m sure Sofía’s on the phone to her mother. She’s doing that shouting and crying at the same time thing. Poor kid.’

  Dad couldn’t contain himself. He pulled the door open and marched across the hall. As he did so, a tiny black and white bullet shot into the sitting room – my dog and Familiar Spirit, Scout. He did not look happy.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it’ said Myfanwy. ‘I’d better serve desserts.’ She grinned. ‘The audience will be getting restless.’ She placed her hand on my arm and whispered, ‘Keep going, Conrad,’ before bouncing off down the passage to the kitchen.

  ‘Pour me a large one and sit down,’ said Mother. ‘And what’s got into that dog?’

  ‘He’s very sensitive.’ I reached down and gave him a scratch. Scout is the result of a roaming Spirit (origin unknown) merging with a new-born border collie pup. He really doesn’t like it when the humans fight.

  Mother settled back on to the couch and accepted a brandy. ‘To family,’ she said, before knocking back a double.

  I topped up her glass. Not too much. ‘I think it may be my fault,’ I said.

  She drank more brandy. ‘You’ve always been precocious, Conrad, but even you would have struggled to impregnate Sofía’s mother from another country.’

  ‘But I did meet them.’

  She sat up. ‘How? When?’

  ‘Last month. When Mina was getting her nails done.’

  ‘Of course. Mercedes’ house is opposite the salon. But why did you go knocking on their door?’

  Mina slipped into the sitting room, a vivid splash of red against the pale walls. She’d decided on Indian dress for the party.

  ‘How is it?’ I asked.

  She leaned against the door, closed her eyes and breathed out. ‘Sofía is off the phone. Alfred is comforting her. I’d give them some space.’ She stood up and spotted the third brandy glass. ‘I need that.’ I poured for her and she curled up on the couch, next to Mother.

  ‘You were saying?’ said Mother, not one to be distracted by news from elsewhere.

  ‘It has to do with magick, I’m afraid.’

  Mother closed her eyes. ‘Dear God, no. Please tell me that Mercedes’ tarot readings don’t really tell the future.’

  ‘They do. Sort of. Her home is full of magick, and I leaned against the wall. They knew I was there immediately, and I knew it was a house of magick. Sofía came to see who it was and invited me in. They only discovered that I was a Clarke later, and now I know why Mercedes wasn’t very happy.’

  Mother shook her head. She’d joined the world of magick recently, but refuses to engage with it. Dad is different: he can’t see it at all, and never will. It’s a defence mechanism. ‘So why is Sofía here now?’ she asked.

  ‘I left Mercedes my card. She will have been on the phone and found out that I’m connected, in a modest way. I’m betting that she wants me to get Sofía into Salomon’s House.’

  ‘That’s the Invisible College isn’t it?’

  ‘It is. Sofía doesn’t have Mercedes’ gift, but she does have talent. She needs to develop it before it fades.’

  ‘No surprise there. This is the second time it’s happened.’

  ‘You’ve lost me,’ said Mina.

  Mother turned to Mina as a relief from the doings of the male Clarkes. ‘Mercedes didn’t tell Alfred about his daughter until the child was thirteen. She said she needed money for a private school’. Mother frowned at me. ‘Your father insisted on a DNA test first, and insisted that Mercedes tell her the truth eventually. Of course, he told me straight away.’

  Mina did the ma
ths. ‘Six years ago, Mary?’

  ‘Yes, dear. You’re quite right, as usual. When Alfred told me, I said that he could – should – pay the woman, but only if he sold Elvenham and agreed to live in Spain.’ Aah. That explained a lot. Dad had sold Elvenham to me and used the money to buy their villa. The deal had been done five years ago, and they’d divided their time between Clerkswell and San Vicente, the small town near Valencia. That was partly because they couldn’t let go of life here and partly because I was in Afghanistan most of the time.

  Mother does have an evil side. She mostly reserves it for games of bridge, and she has a special grin she uses when she is pulling out the winning trump. She used it now. ‘I made Alfred tell you he’d lost money on a Spanish venture.’

  Ouch. Dad spent his life trying to convince people that being an antique dealer is a steady job. It must have hurt deeply to pretend that he’d lost all that money in business, not in bed.

  ‘And now Mercedes wants you to put Sofía through university,’ said Mother, shaking her head.

  ‘I don’t think it’s that,’ said Mina. ‘There’s no tuition fees at Salomon’s House. Not as such, I don’t think.’ She reached under her kurta and pulled out a tissue.

  She passed it to Mother, and to my amazement, Mother gathered Mina into her arm and kissed her head. Perhaps it was the emotion; perhaps it was the brandy.

  Mina looked bewildered. She is tiny, compared to Mother, and extricated herself with some difficulty. Mother realised that she’d inadvertently shown affection to someone and hastily moved a few inches away, a red glow appearing over her cheeks. She cleared her throat and said, ‘If it’s not money, then what?’

  Mina was trying to compose herself, and I stepped in. ‘I think Mercedes wants her daughter to study somewhere that won’t draw attention to Mercedes’ illegal activities.’

  ‘Hmph,’ said Mother. ‘You know about her weed empire, then. Did Alfred tell you, or did she try to sell you some to go with the tarot reading?’

  Mina smoothed her kurta. ‘Sorry. You’ve lost me. Us.’

  Mother shook her head impatiently. It was her keep up look, the one she’d used when trying to help me with my A level maths homework. ‘Mercedes sells very high grade marijuana. If you have arthritis in San Vicente, all the doctors send you to Casa Conventa. She only sells to customers over forty, so that’s probably why you escaped.’

  ‘Erm, that’s interesting,’ I said, ‘but not her real crime. She does tarot readings for mundane clients and uses an enchanted deck. That’s a big no-no.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes. I’ve arrested Mages for far less.’

  ‘I’m sure you have, dear. I meant, can she really use magick like that.’

  ‘Yes, but you’ll have to ask Vicky or Francesca for details.’

  The door clicked open and Sofía entered. My father – our father – had his hand protectively on her shoulder. You wouldn’t think that Sofía was half English at first. She has black hair, olive skin and the mixture of grace and awkwardness that marks late adolescence. Her left hip was leaning into Dad for support at the same time as her right shoulder drew away from his touch.

  She’d made some effort to clear the smudged makeup off her face, but the tears had left her eyes swollen, and that’s where you could see her dual genetic heritage. It wasn’t in the dark hazel of her pupils but in the wide spacing and openness of her eyes below a high forehead. She hitched up her jeans with a wiggle that could have been our sister Rachael at nineteen and moved away from Dad. Towards me.

  ‘You really are my brother?’ she said. ‘You? The Dragonslayer?’

  What do you say to that? I had nothing, so I stepped forward and opened my arms.

  2 — Eight Card Trick

  When we broke apart, I noticed that Mother had disappeared.

  ‘She’s gone to make the ultimate sacrifice,’ said Dad. ‘She’s going to call Rachael.’

  Now that was brave. Very brave. Even braver than what Sofía said next.

  ‘Can I join the party? Is that okay?’ Scout emerged from his hiding place and lolloped up to Sofía with a small bark. ‘He is gorgeous. Hello.’

  She bent down to stroke him, and both of them jumped back when the spark of Lux lit up.

  Sofía said something in Spanish and put her hand to her mouth. Scout’s ears flattened and he shook himself. He looked at me.

  ‘Scout, this is my long-lost sister,’ I said. ‘She’s part of the family.’

  He crouched and licked her toes. Sofía flinched, but held still. With a bark, Scout pulled back his gums in a doggy grin and dashed out of the room.

  ‘Bloody strange dog, that,’ said Dad.

  Mina took Sofía’s arm. ‘If you’re serious about making an appearance, we need to do some work, starting with your hair and working down. Conrad, go and prepare the way.’ Easier said than done.

  I left the house and went into the new gardens, designed by Myfanwy and being celebrated with a bit of a do. Almost all the people I love and trust were there, barring my sister Rachael and my boss in Merlyn’s Tower. I limped across the much reduced lawn and it went very quiet.

  ‘Can we break this up a bit?’ I said. ‘The poor girl actually wants to come out, and if we’re all in a group, she’ll run a mile. I’m only going to say one thing and it’s this: can we pretend she was always coming and that her flight was delayed?’

  ‘That’s one way of putting it,’ said Myfanwy. She took charge immediately, breaking up the group, settling me on the well with a bucket of beers and commanding a couple of the younger Mages to help her clear plates into the kitchen.

  I lit a cigarette and opened a beer. The stone wall of the well rim was warm with both heat and magick. That well is the reason the Clarkes are here. It used to be a door into the realm of Fae, and it still has residual magick. During the Black Death, William the Clerk used the magick and Clarkes have lived here ever since, father to son, with only a change of spelling in six hundred years.

  Vicky emerged from the kitchen and walked slowly across the lawn. She’s convalescing from a badly punctured lung, a stab wound inflicted on my last mission. I was thrilled when she was promoted to Captain of the King’s Watch rather than Officer, but very sorry to lose her. Vicky was my first magickal partner, and we have a bond that goes beyond being comrades in arms.

  She carried her plate over to the well and sat next to me with a huff. ‘Gateau and cheese,’ she said. ‘A peace offering for blurting out that that lass is your sister. I’m sorry about that.’

  I accepted the plate. ‘It’s a start. I’ll get over it, and the look of horror on your face when you realised what you’d done was priceless, but it’s not me who’s had their entire world upended, is it?’ I took a large bite of gateau and waited for the sugar rush.

  ‘Nah. You’re right, Uncle C. How can I make it up to her?’

  ‘Take her under your wing. Find out if she’s cut out for the Invisible College. I know she’s not a Diviner like her mother, beyond that, I can’t tell.’

  ‘Aye. Right you are. Before I forget, what are your plans?’

  The garden party and the cricket matches yesterday had been a moment of escape from the day job of keeping the peace in the world of magick with the King’s Watch. ‘No idea. We’ve got an appointment to Skype the Boss tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll find out then.’

  Vicky took some of the cheese. ‘This is good. Hang on, here they come.’

  I’d seen a flash of red in the kitchen as Mina introduced Sofía to Myfanwy and Erin. They emerged into the garden and moved quickly across the open space.

  ‘Isn’t that one of Mina’s dresses?’ said Vicky.

  ‘Mmm.’

  Sofía’s jeans were gone, replaced by a blue and green print dress. Mina buys from the petite ranges, so this one was a lot shorter on Sofía, something that immediately drew the attention of Vicky’s new magickal partner, Xavi Metcalfe.

  ‘Aren’t you gonna do the introductions?’ said V
icky.

  ‘No. Mina needs to do this.’

  ‘Stamping her authority as lady of the manor, eh?’

  Only Vicky could – or would – say something like that and get away with it. There was too much truth in what she said for me to argue, so I lit a cigarette and watched the show.

  ‘…And this is Victoria Robson. Vicky,’ said Mina when she’d dragged a slightly dazed Sofía over to the well. ‘She’s a Watch Captain – Inquisidor – as well, but more than that, she’s family.’

  ‘You too?’ said Sofía after an embrace.

  ‘Aye, pet,’ said Vicky, ‘and this is me Uncle Conrad.’

  We’re not really related, but I helped re-start Vicky’s heart when she was dead. You could call me her blood-uncle, like a blood-brother but with embarrassing dance moves.

  ‘I’ll explain later,’ said Vicky. ‘Excuse me, I need to sit on a chair with a back.’

  ‘And I need a drink,’ said Mina. She walked off with Vicky, leaving Sofía and me alone at the well.

  ‘Welcome to Elvenham,’ I said. ‘Do you want a beer? It’s San Miguel.’

  She managed a smile. ‘The best. I went to school in Barcelona. We drank it all the time.’

  I passed her the bottle. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Can you give me a cigarette? Please?’ Another thing she and I both inherited from Dad. He smokes cigars these days. I passed her the packet and my lighter.

  ‘Thank you.’ She turned her head slowly, looking from the house to the gardens, to the party, to me. ‘I have met more Magos, no Mages, more Mages today than in my whole life. I think perhaps Mamá was right to keep me away from them. They are all so … powerful. I will never fit in here.’

  ‘Ben has no magick at all. Neither do Vicky’s parents. Nor does Mina, really. You’ll find your own place, Sofía. Besides, when it comes to fitting in, magick is not the most important factor.’

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘The biggest question is whether you can play cricket.’

  ‘Cricket?’ She thought that was hilarious. She’ll learn.