Patience (The Patience Trilogy Book 1)

they went back the way they had been going.

  Grim went through a set of glass doors on the other end. The room they found themselves in reminded Patience of a waiting room that you might get in a doctor’s or dentist surgery – even fitted with a pile of old magazines.

  As the Admin said, they went straight through to the next room. It was large, with four seats lined across the lowest level facing forwards. Ahead was a kind of stage, with steps leading up. There were two chairs. One half way up, and one at the very top behind a podium. The Luminary, a man with a flowing white beard and bald patch, looked down on them, but it wasn’t him who spoke first.

  “Evening Grim, and mortal girl,” said the man who was sat in the lower seat. He sounded bored as though this was procedure, except the word mortal which he almost spat out with a degree of spite.

  She looked at him. He was very large, not the type to work as a politician or even at a desk job. His eyes were sharp and dangerous, and his mouth twisted into a look of cruelty. “Nice to see you’re finally here.” Patience didn’t like him already, and he didn’t seem to like her much either.

  “We were somewhat indisposed,” said Grim, sitting on the central chair on the ground level, and inviting Patience to take the one beside him.

  It was the Luminary who started speaking next.

  “We heard tellings of your appointment of this girl,” he said, not even bothering to give a glance towards Patience, it was as though she was unimportant in his eyes. “Justify yourself.” Even as he spoke, he managed to keep all emotion from showing on his face. If he was angry, he certainly wasn’t showing it, neither in his face nor tone.

  Grim looked from the Luminary to the man beside him, none of them were cursory glances. “This is the niece of Bernard Gillespie. He was kidnapped by a man named Mr Big.” The man on the second level sat forward and glared, Grim turned to him. “Something you wish to say, Magnum?”

  “Only that I am struggling to see your justification for taking this girl with you.”

  “If you would let me finish,” he sighed, Patience gave him as filthy a look as possible. “A man also attacked her, they were after something.”

  “What would you propose they were looking for?” asked the Luminary, his voice calm and monotone, not breaking from character for a second.

  Grim thought for a moment, then a look of knowing flashed over his face before returning to normal. “I think he is looking for the Lamina.”

  “Impossible,” snapped Magnum, “the weapon was lost after the Great War. It hasn’t been seen since.”

  “Bernard told me that he knew where it was,” said Grim, “he was convinced that he knew, and he wrote it in his journal, which now sits behind a protective barrier in his study.”

  “So, you believe that there is a man named Mr Big,” said the Luminary, “who is looking for the most dangerous weapon in the world, thought to be lost, and he kidnapped Bernard to find it.”

  “Yes, and when he can’t get anything out of Bernard, they’ll be after Patience. As you know, the only way to break a protective barrier that is tied to blood is to kill any who have stepped through it. Currently to our knowledge, that includes Bernard, and young Patience here.” She felt herself go cold, Grim had failed to mention that.

  The Luminary stared for a long time, his eyes invading her personal space until he began to speak once again. “I cannot force myself to believe in this, which means that I refuse to offer you any added support.”

  Magnum smiled smugly. “However, it doesn’t change the fact that someone has taken Bernard. So, I will allow you to investigate this matter and do whatever is necessary to bring him back.”

  Magnum interrupted. “What of the girl?” he said, “surely she should have her memory wiped, or something.”

  “That isn’t possible,” said Grim, “it wasn’t I who told her. Bernard left a letter which gave away the existence of magic. As a family member, he had every right to tell her, taking away our right to eliminate her memories.”

  She thought she heard Magnum curse under his breath.

  “Okay,” said the Luminary at last, “she can go with you. But we won’t take any responsibility for the consequences.” Grim nodded his thanks, and led the way out the room. As soon as they were away, Patience gave a sigh of relief.

  “That was intense,” she said, her breathing sounding more like she had just taken part in a long run rather than a conversation. “Why didn’t you tell me Mr Big was after some kind of weapon?”

  “I only just worked it out,” he said, “I just said the words that came to my head. Memory is a strange thing, it doesn’t always work logically or chronologically. It just works whenever it feels like it.”

  “Probably because you’re getting old.”

  They took a route back through the atrium and into a set of winding corridors. They all seemed the same.

  She wondered how Grim was even able to find his way around this place.

  “Where are we going next?” she asked, eager to find out what this clue was, “will it help us to find my uncle?”

  “Maybe,” he said, “we’re visiting a colleague of mine called Mercy. We’ve worked together many times in the past, because she is a clairvoyant. She provides all my needs in terms of altering memories.

  However, another ability that clairvoyants possess is the skills needed to take a sample of blood and locate someone, no matter where they are.”

  “She’s going to help us find Uncle Bernard?” said Patience, smiling furiously. After that she picked up the pace and practically ran to the office of Mercy.

  Grim stepped in first, and then she continued through beside him. Mercy looked up and gave them both welcoming smiles. She was truly beautiful. Her eyes were a soft maroon colour that seemed to glaze over everything with a gentle touch. She had light blonde hair – practically yellow – falling past her shoulders.

  “Hi,” she said, frantically waving, Patience screwed up her face in laughter the moment she opened her mouth. There was nothing strange about her, in fact everything seemed unsettlingly perfect, she was just in that mood.

  “I’m sorry,” said Grim, “she does this sometimes.” But Mercy was laughing as well, they were both matching each other for the loudest laugh, or who would fall on the floor in hysterics first. Grim sighed.

  “Women.”

  Mercy the wiped tears from her eyes, though her face still couldn’t look completely seriously “Sorry, what was it you wanted?”

  “We need your help.” Her face managed to become serious, especially when Grim told her that Bernard was missing. “We were wondering if you could take this sample of his blood and locate him.” He handed her the vial. Patience wondered where he had got it, must have been from the floor of his house when she wasn’t looking.

  She closed her eyes and held it in her hands.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t help you.”

  “Don’t you need to try, with your map and everything.”

  She shook her head. “I can sense it, there is a block. Someone is stopping me from seeing where he is.”

  Patience frowned, for every magic that seemed to help them, it appeared that there was a counter. Yet never a counter for the counter.

  Grim cursed. “Well I’m not sure what to do now.”

  “We could go back to my uncle’s,” said Patience, “a look inside the journal might tell us where this Lamina is hidden. It won’t help us find Mr Big, but surely getting it before he does is better than nothing.”

  Grim nodded, but Mercy cut in. “I’ll come with you,” she said, “Bernard was my friend too, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if I was to just sit here.” She stood up, and Patience noticed the swords that were attached to her side, two of them. Maybe she could be helpful, it certainly looked like she was trained in combat – muscles and everything.

  It was decided, so they left the Imperium for her uncle’s house.

  7

  A SPARK OF M
AGIC

  It was incredibly satisfying being in the car with Mercy. Previously the journeys would have been filled with an occasional deadly silence, but now there wasn’t a moment of breath between conversation. She was just too much fun.

  Patience listened intently as Mercy recounted one of her past missions. “So, there was this man called Rasabarb, and he was literally capable of shrinking himself so small that he could climb inside people and attack their organs from the inside.”

  “What happened to him?” she asked.

  “Well, after an epic fight which lasted about thirty seconds and ended with me getting the upper hand, he shrunk to about the size of a penny and jumped at me. Fortunately, I had just finished my lunch, and emptied a jar of jam. When he jumped at me, I caught him in it and fastened on the lid. Turns out, his growth isn’t strong enough to even break through glass, so he was stuck there while we delivered him to the vault.”

  Patience bounced up and down on her seat, only being contained by the restraints of the seat belt.

  “Wow, that sounds amazing, and incredibly unlikely.”

  “Mercy has been known to exaggerate,” said Grim, turning the wheel of the car so that momentum forced her against the door.

  “I do not,” scathed Mercy, throwing him a quick look of disgust before letting out a girlish giggle, “well at least sixty percent of it was true..... okay, forty.” Patience laughed as she felt the car come to a stop.

  They climbed out the door and stepped over the curb onto her uncle’s lawn. Grim