“The stories are that Vihaela’s supposed to use them for experiments.” Anne shook her head. “I don’t know if they’re true. I want to believe that it’s just other mages trying to justify being afraid of life mages, but . . .”

“How do you know this stuff?” I said curiously. “Is this common knowledge in the apprentice program, or . . . ?”

“First I’ve heard of it,” Luna said.

“It’s not,” Anne said. She didn’t meet our eyes. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“I’m afraid that Anne’s stories aren’t exaggerations,” Arachne said. She’d been sitting quietly, working away on a complicated pattern of green and blue thread as she listened; now she spoke, her voice clicking gently. “From what I’ve heard, if anything, they understate the case.”

“Have the Council tried to do anything about her?” I asked.

“No one’ll agree to give evidence against her in court,” Variam said. “Apparently she goes out of her way to hunt down anyone who tries to spread stories.”

“Lovely,” I said. “Well, she sounds absolutely horrific. I really hope I don’t run into her.”

“There’s more,” Variam said. “She’s connected to some high-up people with the Council. Guess whose name comes up linked to her?”

“Please don’t say Levistus.”

“Nirvathis.”

“Great,” I muttered. This just keeps getting better and better.

“Wasn’t he Rayfield’s master?” Luna said. “The one who started all this . . . ?”

“Nirvathis does what Levistus tells him,” I said. I frowned. “And Leo was meeting his apprentice at Pudding Mill Lane . . .” It sounded as though it must have been Vihaela who’d sent him there, or someone working for her. Leo had been carrying that little focus . . . What had been on it?

“This is really confusing,” Luna said. “Who’s on which side?”

“There aren’t just two sides,” I said. “More like four. How did things go with Chalice?”

Luna glanced at Anne, then turned back to me. “Good, I think.”

“I’m guessing there wasn’t any trouble.”

Luna shook her head. “Nothing like that. Though . . . I got the feeling she might have known that we’d been preparing for it.”

“Chalice isn’t stupid,” I said. Even from our brief meeting, that was something I was sure of. “She knows we’ve got reasons not to trust her. She’d have expected you to bring backup.”

“I don’t think she brought anyone,” Anne said. “Not that I could see.”

“Mm,” I said. “She probably wouldn’t need them.”

“Well, we didn’t talk long,” Luna said. “It was mostly about chance magic. I was kind of expecting her to quiz me but she acted like she knew all she needed to already.”

“Did she say anything about the case?”

“No. She did ask what I thought about Morden’s proposal, though.” Luna shrugged. “I told her that since I wasn’t a mage, it didn’t matter much to me. She told me not to be so sure.”

“Huh.” I wonder what she meant by that?