Allie Beckstrom 09 - Magic for a Price (11 page)

Stone stopped at that door, looked over his shoulder at me, his hand on the jamb.

“Yes, we’re going down to the well,” I said.

I wasn’t sure if Stone liked coming to this well, but he made a funny little chirring sound that kind of sounded like a flock of little birds.

I grinned. “You’ve gotten pretty musical all of a sudden,” I said. “Think it’s from all that magic mixed up inside you?”

Yes.
From Dad.

“Probably,” Zay said.

“Dad agrees with you.” I gave Zay an isn’t-that-interesting look, then clomped down the stairs.

I
t didn’t take us long to get to the huge arched-ceiling room that looked more like a chapel than a basement below the inn.

“So, how do you want to approach this, Beckstrom?” Collins asked. He was standing at the foot of the stairs. So were Shame and Terric, though they were as far apart from each other as they could be without stepping out into the room.

The well was closed, which meant the floor looked like beautiful old marble with a gradation of white to black happening so subtly it was difficult to say where, exactly, white left off to become gray, and gray poured into ever-deepening darkness.

I could feel the well just beneath that marble surface. Feel magic lashing, pressing, digging at the stone above it. Magic trying to break free.

“If we open it, do you think it’ll explode?” I asked.

“Only one way to find out, now isn’t there?” Shame bent and pulled off his shoes. Then he tugged off his socks and stuffed them back in the toes of the shoes. “Give me a disk.”

He held his hand out to Zay.

“You’ll have to use Blood magic,” Zay said, not moving.

“I know, Jones. I’ve opened the well before. Live here, remember? Give over.”

Zay still wasn’t moving. “Terric?”

“Fuckssake,” Shame groaned.

“Shame can open it,” Terric said.

“Do
not
need your permission,” Shame grumbled.

Terric continued as if he hadn’t heard him. “You or Collins can purify the well with a disk and the magic in Stone.”

Stone warbled at the sound of his name.

“I’ll close the well,” Terric said. “I don’t know which of us will still be standing to cast the Tangle, Rebound, and Refresh combination, but whoever is, will handle that.”

Zay weighed those options for a split second. I had the sudden feeling that he and Terric had worked through a lot of situations with pretty much this same approach. Making fast, hard decisions, and largely ignoring Shame’s impulses. He trusted Terric. Trusted his opinion.

Zay slid his hand into the bag and pulled out one disk that shone hard flat silver against his dark palm. “Don’t screw this up, Flynn.”

Shame smiled. “Don’t you know me better than that, Z? Or do you think I’ve changed that much too?”

“Just do the job,” Zay said with no heat in his words.

Shame tossed the disk as if getting the weight of it. The dark magic that surrounded him reached out to touch the disk, to taste it, lick it.

I didn’t see the darkness actually pull on the disk, didn’t see any magic transfer between the disk and Shame. But after the darkness around Shame pulled away from the disk, he nodded once, as if knowing more clearly just what it was he had in his hands.

That was different. I didn’t even know if he was aware of what he had just done with darkness. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or not.

“I’ll make this fast,” he said. “And I mean fast. Someone better be ready with the other disk and rock boy over there in case this all does explode.”

Shame paced across the room. Even though he’d said he’d take it fast, he moved a lot more slowly than I would have, and took a circuitous route toward the center of the room, pausing for the briefest of moments, and tipping his head down as if he could hear the magic, feel the magic pulsing beneath his bare feet.

He finally made his way to the center of the room, and then knelt there. He placed the disk, carefully, on the ground directly between his bare feet, wiggling his toes just a bit before standing very still.

Then he drew a glyph in the air in front of him with both hands. It was an Unlocking spell of some kind, though the order of it didn’t make any sense to me until he drew a switchblade out of his pocket, snicked the blade free, and cut the side of his hand.

Blood fell in crimson droplets, pattering against the disk between his feet.

The spell exploded to life, carving out a pattern of power in black and red ribbons. Shame was whispering, coaxing, guiding the spell in a singsong that I had a hard time trying to follow.

The magic spooled a line from the glyph in the air, combined with Shame’s blood and breath, and joined the glyph in the disk on the floor.

The floor spun open, marble moving as smoothly as a watchmaker’s spring, stones sliding soundlessly outward like a flower opening.

Shame bent and plucked up the disk before it fell into
the ever-widening maw in the center of the floor. But he continued chanting, whispering, controlling the spell as he paced slowly backward at the growing edge of the well.

The bulk of the floor opened to the twisting, glowing mass of magic that pooled beneath the ground. Shame was on the other side of the room, the well between him and us.

A situation Terric did not seem entirely comfortable with. He was pacing, just four short steps to the side and four short steps back, his hands opening and closing, as if wishing for something, or someone, to hold on to.

I was happy about two things. One, the well was open.

Two, I could still breathe even though the well stank of tainted magic. I didn’t know if that meant I’d become more immune to the foul smell, or if by turning off the networks, we’d already done some good for magic.

Shame lifted his hands over his head, then out to each side, as if bracing against a doorway. One last word tumbled from his lips, and the floor stopped moving. The Unlock spell faded from sight. The well was open.

“Allie?” Zay asked.

“The magic in the well looks like black sludge to me, almost solid, with just a center of light.”

“That’s not how Maeve and Hayden described seeing it just a day or so ago,” Terric said.

“The poison has spread,” I said. “That’s why we’re here. Collins, I think it would be best if you access the magic in Stone and fix the well.”

“Of course,” Collins said.

“Like hell he will,” Terric said.

“Collins,” I amended, “will hold the disk and Dad will access the magic in the disks and in Stone.” I glanced at Zay, who didn’t look like he approved of that idea either.

“Let us do this part,” I said. “Dad knows what he’s doing with Stone and Collins understands how the disks work if something goes wrong. I think Terric should close the well and you should set the spells to keep people out of it.”

I looked between the three men. Grim, but silent. “Glad we all agree,” I said. Besides, if I had to work with my dad—let him take over my body—they had better not complain about letting Collins pull his weight too.

“Come on, Stone,” I said. “Let’s get closer to the well.”

We do need to be closer, right?
I asked Dad.

I would assume so. You’ll need a disk.

Right. I turned to ask Zayvion for one. But he was already handing one to Collins and giving him his patented glare of death.

Collins took the disk without a flicker of emotion, but when he turned my way, I could see the fire of curiosity in his eyes as he studied the glyphs carved into it.

“Beautiful,” he said, walking my way. “Just. Stunning. To hold a working product after all those years of trial and error.” He glanced up at me. “Your father is possibly one of the greatest minds ever to modify magical techniques and technology. Think of what he could have done if the accident could have been avoided.”

His smile faded as he saw my scowl.

“Murder isn’t an accident,” I said.

“Not that,” he said. “Not his death. The accident. When you were younger?” He pushed his glasses back on his face, then tipped his chin just a bit as if suddenly realizing I had no idea what he was talking about. “Well, perhaps you were too young to remember. Shall we?”

Shall we, hell. I wanted to know about that accident.

Allison,
Dad said,
the well.

“Allie?” Shame said from the other side of the room. “Really be great if you’d get in the game here, love.”

Magic—well, black tar sticky, smelly stuff—was lapping up the walls of the well, splashing just over the edge of the marble floor. Where it touched marble, it burned, sending up steam that stank to high heaven.

“Anyone else see that?” I asked.

“Magic burning through stone?” Terric said. “Yes. Even without Sight. Need help?”

“We got it.” I looked at Collins. “I’m going to let Dad forward, but I’ll be here too.”

He nodded, not looking at all concerned. “He and I will figure this out. If I know your father he already has a plan in place.”

We stepped as close to the well as we could get, about three feet away from the edge so the sludge couldn’t reach us.

Stone hesitantly padded up next to me, his wings unfurled and quivering. His ears were back, and he was no longer crooning. He didn’t look like he wanted to be here at all.

“It’s okay, Stone,” I said, putting my hand on his head to comfort him and keep him beside me. I knew he didn’t like working with my dad. “I’ll be right here.”

“Ah,” Collins said, eyeing the magic that was steaming and burning its way closer to us. “We should get to this immediately.”

I stepped aside in my mind, allowing Dad equal access to my eyes, body, hands.
Please, Dad,
I thought.
Do this right.

He paused, and I could feel his sigh.
I have never endeavored to do anything less.
Then, with my mouth, he said, “Eli, I’ll need you to simply hold the disk. I want to
alleviate Allison’s sensitivity to the poison in magic as much as I can.”

Eli’s smile spread into a grin. He held the disk across his right palm. “Good to be working with you again, sir.”

“And you,” Dad said. “I’ll tap into the Animate. Do not activate the disk yet.”

I felt my head turn to look down at Stone, which was, as always, a weird sensation. “As I understand the desired outcome, we’ll be performing this on all four wells. Is that correct, gentlemen?”

“Yes,” Zayvion said, his voice tight.

Oh. I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it before, but suddenly realized it must be really weird for him to watch me become not me, when Dad took over.

That anchor, the promise of me remembering us, and remembering what we were together that Zayvion had given me was still strong and comforting in my mind. I wanted to tell him not to worry, but we didn’t have time for that.

“I’ll need a small portion of the purified magic in this…in Stone,” Dad added awkwardly.

Stone narrowed his big round eyes and showed some teeth.

He did not like Dad. At all.

“It’s okay, Stoney,” I said, taking over my mouth without even having to negotiate with Dad. Once again the ease in which we were living in the same space freaked me out.

Stone’s ears flipped up and he wrapped one wing around my leg. He knew I was here, but still didn’t seem convinced he should do what Dad said.

“Better make it quick,” I said to Dad. “I don’t know how long he’ll let you work with him.”

Collins shook his head, his mouth open. “It’s fascinating. You truly are two different beings in one body. Just, well, impossible would have been my first thought, but obviously this is more than possible. You must be very pleased,” he said.

“Pleased?” I asked.

Dad took over my mouth again, a little more quickly than I’d expected. “I am pleased only in that I can lend my assistance to purify magic and see that Portland is safe once again.”

Okay, I believed about half of that. I knew Dad really did care about keeping Portland safe, even if it was only for little Daniel and Violet. But the rest of what he’d just said didn’t ring true.

Collins knew something about my dad I didn’t know. Some reason why he’d be pleased about all this happening. About him possessing me. Maybe he knew what my dad’s plans had been before he died.

Maybe he could guess at what his plans were now.

After we cleansed the wells, if we did so and survived, I was going to pin Collins down and bribe or beat information out of him.

“Allison,” Dad said with my voice. “It is easier if I have your attention.”

Could have done without the condescending tone, but I paid attention.

Collins was tracing a very delicate spell with the fingers of his left hand, something that reminded me of Illusion, but not quite.

“It is an Enhancement,” Dad said in answer to my thought. “We will use it to carry the small portion of purified magic contained within the Animate.”

Stone growled.

He has a name,
I thought.
You might want to use it before he bites your hand off. Well, my hand off.

“Stone,” Dad said. “Stone will not be harmed in this work.”

Stone just growled again. He didn’t trust Dad. Smart rock.

“Easy, Stone,” Zayvion said, walking up to stand on the other side of him. Stone looked between Zayvion and Dad behind my eyes and whimpered a little.

Apparently Dad in me was confusing the heck out of him.

Still, having Zayvion there helped him settle down a bit.

“I am going to draw out some of the magic in the Animate—in Stone,” Dad said. “Mr. Jones, please stand ready to Ground if I have miscalculated the force of this endeavor.”

“Have you ever miscalculated before?” Zay asked quietly.

I, well, we held his gaze. Heavy with gold, with unspent power. Dad saw Zayvion differently than I did. He saw him more of an immovable force, an uncertain accomplice who could just as easily become his most formidable enemy.

“Yes, Mr. Jones,” Dad said mildly. “I have often been wrong.”

A memory, of blood on his hands, his blood, someone else’s blood. The rising fear and panic choking him, his voice, begging. For the briefest moment, I saw a woman’s bloody face in profile. She seemed familiar. He snapped that image away and into darkness so quickly, I couldn’t even remember what she looked like.