“It is the offer you have.”

“I’ll make you a counteroffer,” I said. “I’ll go back to the Keepers and do my job. You go back to the Council and do your job. We both ignore each other.”

“Please tell me you are not truly this stupid.”

“You know something, Levistus?” I said. “I’m getting a little tired of your backhanded insults. You talk like you’re the gatekeeper of civilisation and I’m the barbarian. It’s irritating.”

“Your irritation does not concern me,” Levistus said. “And your counteroffer is noted and rejected. My terms stand. Do you accept them, or reject them?”

“Your ‘terms’ are a glorified threat. Either I do what you want, or you’ll keep on being my enemy. You don’t have anything to offer me.”

“Correct. I will ask one final time. What is your answer?”

I looked at Levistus for a long moment. I could lie, obviously. Pretend to agree, then work against him. But I seriously doubted that Levistus was going to act any differently whether I told him yes or no. As far as he was concerned, I was just another Dark mage.

Just another mage . . .

“What happened to Leo?” I said.

Levistus blinked. It was a very small motion, there and gone in a second, but he didn’t manage to conceal it. For the first time in the conversation, I’d surprised him. “Who?”

“The kid Caldera and I found last night.” I kept my voice calm. “The mages who sent the mantis golem took him. What happened to him?”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

I looked back at Levistus for a long moment. “No,” I said at last. “I suppose you wouldn’t.”

“Well?”

“The answer’s no,” I said. “I’m not going to be your agent to protect White Rose. In fact, I’m not working for you in any capacity. I don’t like you, Levistus. I’ve told you that twice already, and I don’t think you’ve really listened, so I’ll explain more thoroughly this time. I don’t like how you act, I don’t like what you do, and I don’t like what you stand for. You represent everything I most hate about the Council. You have no respect for human life, you deal constantly in betrayals, and yet somehow you also manage at the same time to be completely convinced of your moral superiority over everyone who isn’t a Light mage. Maybe you are Morden and Richard’s enemy, and maybe helping one of you does mean hurting the other. But there’s a certain point where trying to choose the lesser of two evils is just an exercise in futility. It doesn’t matter which of you wins; you’re both so bad that I honestly can’t decide who’d be worse. Working for you would be just as corrupting as being Richard’s apprentice, even if I trusted you enough to do it, which I don’t.” I looked up at Levistus. “Does that explain it well enough for you?”

Levistus looked back at me for a second. “You disappoint me.”