Allie Beckstrom 09 - Magic for a Price (16 page)

He nodded, absently, not taking any of them off. “You think this will do any good?” There was no tone in his voice, no emotion. He was on his feet, but he sure as hell wasn’t all together yet.

“It won’t hurt,” Terric said. “Plus, if you try that shit you did back there again, I will knock you on your ass.”

Shame didn’t say anything, didn’t glare, didn’t flip Terric off. He just stood there, as if waiting to be told what to do next. As if all the fire in him had been snuffed out.

It was strange. Frightening to see him like this. Just as frightening as seeing him mindlessly drinking down the dead.

“Enough talking,” Zay said. “Let’s close this well.”

Z
ay and I jogged across the parking lot. Stone seemed to think we’d come out to play some kind of running game and was zipping around all of us like a race car doing laps. Each time he passed by me he made a little happy croon, which just made him sound like a tiny train zooming by with its whistle stuck.

I didn’t look back to check on Shame and Terric or Collins, but from the sound of footfalls, they were all right behind us.

There were only a few people leaving the parking lot since it was completely dark now. They looked our way, probably surprised to see a gargoyle running around like a dog off a leash. Not that I cared. No time for stealth. No time for secrets.

We’d gotten the word out not to use magic. We’d gotten the word out that magic was getting shut down. But that hadn’t stopped people from coming to see the falls.

We jogged past the parking area, past the espresso stand, up the concrete pathway that wound between green ferns and moss to our right and trees and scrub to our left with nothing but moonlight to guide us. Hit the bridge at the midpoint of the falls.

I slowed, because, damn, I was hurt, tired, and out of
shape. I did manage to keep it to a fast walk as we took the next rise in the hill.

Zay slowed too, probably more for my burning lungs than for his own limitations.

No matter how fast we ran up this hill, then down those damn stairs to the well, there was no chance we’d get back to town before the rest of the people from Seattle got there first.

Unless the Hounds managed to trip them up, slow them down.

Maybe. Davy sounded like he was on the chase behind them, not in front of them. And Hounds weren’t the sort of people who gave up easily.

Zay stopped, and I nearly ran into his wide back.

We must have reached the doorway to the Life well. I never could recognize the exact spot where it was hidden in the hillside.

I stepped to the side of the trail while Zay drew magic from the well to cast an Illusion in case someone came upon us, although it was unlikely so late at night. Then he cast the spell that would reveal the doorway in the side of the hill that would lead down to the well.

“Very nice,” Collins said, a little out of breath. “This is well hidden.”

Great. This must be part of the memories he’d had Closed and taken away from him by the Authority.

Shame and Terric didn’t look tired. Standing there, blank darkness and brooding light, they weren’t even breathing hard.

Even better, the darkness and light around them was very subtle. The Void stones were doing a good job of keeping the magic that was available to them dampened.

Of course, neither of them was actually trying to draw
on magic. I had a feeling if they did, not even the half-dozen Void stones they each wore would be enough to slow them down.

The door opened and we all stepped through it onto the platform at the top of the stairs.

Terric flipped on the light switch and electric lights flickered to life all the way down the staircase, shining wet and yellow against the stone walls.

Stone burbled, still standing outside on the trail.

“Come on, Stone,” I said. “This isn’t going to hurt.”

His ears flapped back, and then up, his wings stretched.

“Come on, boy,” I said again as I started down the stairs. “Let’s do magic.”

He finally clambered in, then pushed past me, so that I had to hug the wooden rail. Stone galloped down the stairs, with his very humanlike hands wrapping around each step as he went, his wings out for balance.

I took the stairs as fast as I could, trying not to think about having to run back up the damn things in a few minutes.

At the bottom of the stairs, I stopped to get my breathing in order while Zay unlocked the big double doors with that ribbonlike spell that spooled out from his fingertips.

Then he slammed the doors open and strode into the room. “Terric, you think you can open this one?”

If Terric was surprised by Zay asking for his help, the only indication of it was a slight pause in his step. “Should be able to.”

“Then you do that,” Zayvion said. “Shame, I’ll want you to close it. Allie, you and your dad will purify the well with Stone. Collins, you and I handle Shield and Ground and anything else we might need. Let’s make it fast.”

Terric pulled off the stones on his wrist, and then the three he wore around his neck. He handed all of those to Shame. “If I turn this place into a rain forest, stop me.”

Shame just nodded.

As soon as the last Void stone was off of him, the glow around Terric flared and that otherworldly beauty infused him.

Zayvion dug a disk out of the messenger bag and handed it to Terric, then handed another one to me. I was worried about touching it at first, but it wasn’t a problem. It held magic locked and ready for my dad to release just like Collins had released it. The disk itself was just metal.

I noted he didn’t give a disk to Shame yet.

Terric walked out into the middle of the room. He took a deep breath, then began whispering while he very carefully traced one finger over the disk in the palm of his hand.

Shame, beside me, shifted slightly, maybe getting ready to use magic.

I glanced at him. The laughter that had always seemed to be leashed just beneath his surface was gone.

He wasn’t standing like he was getting ready to use magic. He was standing like he was trying hard not to turn and walk away. Eleanor was pacing, well, floating, at a distance behind him, glancing over at Shame and Terric with a worried look on her face.

“You okay?” I asked Shame quietly.

“On a scale from one to ten?” he said. “No.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little. That sounded more like the Shame I knew.

“Going to get through this?”

“You mean am I going to try not to kill anyone?”

“No,” I said, pressing my fingers gently against his sleeve. He jerked at the contact, looked over at me.

“Are you ready to use magic?”

He was breathing a little hard and sweat slicked his forehead, sticking his bangs into points. He pulled his arm away. “Don’t. Just…” He shook his head, then looked back out at Terric. “You don’t want to be holding on to me if I fall, Beckstrom.”

“So don’t fall,” I said.

Terric said one last word and flicked his fingers. An Open spell spread out at his feet, glowing in soft orchid light. The wooden floor shifted and slid, pulling away from the well.

Terric paced away from the ever-growing hole in the floor, the disk in his hand dark and empty of magic. He strode over to where Shame and I were standing and nodded.

“It wasn’t impossible to control,” he said to Shame. “But it took…effort.”

Shame handed Terric the Void stones and Terric put them on with a look of relief.

“Allie?” Zay said.

Right. I was up.
Dad?

He seemed to draw himself forward from a far corner of my mind. He was tired.

Can you do this?
I asked him.

Don’t be ridiculous, Allison. Of course I can. Step aside.

Think you can do it with a little less pain this time?
I asked.

I didn’t expect the…amount of effort required to tap into the magic in the Animate. If I’d been in my own body, it wouldn’t have been as difficult. But in yours?
He paused, and I knew what he was thinking. That my body, my skills, and my mind were inferior for the task he could have carried out just fine on his own.

Say it, you egotistical jerk, I thought.

In your body, with the damage to your mind
, he said with something that hinted at fatigue, or, I don’t know, kindness,
there are variables I hadn’t taken into account.

Had he just called me brain-damaged?

“Allie?” Zayvion said again. “Can he do it?”

“He can do it,” I snarled. “Come on, Stone.” I marched over to the edge of the well. The white and crystal light of magic was muddied with black tar that lapped at the edges like cooling lava. And just like at the last well, there was only a center of pure magic left.

Stone paced up next to me, keeping a wise distance from the edge of the well even though the tar didn’t seem to be lapping over onto the floor this time.

I patted his head. “Good, Stoney. We’ll make this quick.”

Collins stepped up beside me. “Shall I draw from the disk?”

“I don’t know. Ask my dad.”

“I was,” he said.

Oh.

I mentally moved aside so that Dad could see through my eyes, use my hands and mouth. I wanted to be as far away from him using magic as possible. He’d told me the thing he’d done so I could use magic would hurt me. No, he’d said every time I used magic it would do me permanent harm.

Maybe staying out of his way while he accessed the magic in Stone would keep the damage down to a minimum.

“You will need to tap into the disk via Life magic, Eli,” Dad said through me. “Can you do that?”

“Certainly,” Eli said.

“Let us begin.”

Collins pulled the magic from the disk, holding it steady over his palm.

Dad once again chanted, strange tonal shifts in a nonlanguage as he drew a glyph in the style of Life magic over Stone. Magic flowed through the glyphs carved in Stone, rippling with green light like a stroke of wind crossing a grassy field.

It hurt. The longer Dad used magic, the harder magic stretched my veins and burned my bones, like a beast trying to claw its way out of my body.

I didn’t moan, but only because Dad had my mouth clamped tight as he concentrated on bringing the spell to completion.

It was not quite an Open spell, not quite a Clarify. It resembled Confluence, which didn’t make a lot of sense. Confluence was usually used to connect two spells, like putting a Refresh on a Relax spell at a dentist’s office. Confluence made the spells join into a seamless harmony. Not exactly what I would have expected him to use, and I’m pretty sure not what he used on the Blood well.

Stone opened his mouth again, standing very still except for the twitch of his wings.

My arms shook with fatigue, but Dad kept my hands steady enough to guide the magic pouring out of Stone to wrap with the disk magic Collins set free. The spells wove together, then arced in a lazy whirlwind down into the pure liquid crystal center of the well.

The world shuddered beneath my feet. A thousand drums and gongs all struck at once, crashing with physical force through the air. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t scream.

Then everything stilled. The faintest scent of roses hung in the room.

I drew in a harsh breath, heard the others doing the same.

Blood, hot and thick, ran from my nose. I wiped it away with the back of my hand, and blinked until the white stars stopped swimming around in the fuzzy gray mess of my vision. I wanted to puke, but even that would take more energy than I had to spare. At least I was still on my feet.

Is that it?
I asked Dad.
Dad?

There was no response. No sense of him at all.

For the first time in a long, long time, I suddenly wondered if he could die. I mean, I knew he was dead already, but could working magic at this level, through me, kill him?

Dad?
I cast out my awareness, searching for the feel of him, the sense of him in my mind.

Finally, a flicker, a slight stirring. He was there, still with me. But not conscious.

“…out of the way, now.” Someone had a hard grip on my arm and was dragging me backward.

That someone was Eli Collins, and we were headed to the base of the stairs where Stone was already rubbing his head against the railing post and grumbling.

“What?” I managed. My throat felt like I’d just gargled with gravel.

“We’re getting out of the way. In case.”

“In case of what?”

He nodded toward the well.

In case of Shame.

Shame stood at the edge of the well. His back was toward me, but turned just enough that I could see his profile. Terric stood next to him, wearing the Void stones, several more hanging from leather cords in his left hand. His right hand was on Shame’s shoulder.

Shame didn’t have any Void stones on him. The darkness of magic roiled around him like a storm cloud.

Zayvion stood at Shame’s other side, both hands gripping the edges of a Ground spell. He hadn’t drawn any magic into the glyph yet, but the interconnecting glyphs of Ground hung quiescent in the air like a woven blanket he could throw on Shame if needed.

Shame visibly took a deep breath, then lifted his chin and held the disk in his left hand as if he were looking into a mirror.

His fingers sliced through a clean, strong Lock spell. The magic from the disk crawled out across the fingers of his left hand, then skipped into his right and filled the glyph he had drawn there.

The well responded, shuttering like a camera lens, the wood floor once again just a wooden floor. The well was closed. Now someone needed to cast the combined spells of Tangle, Rebound, and Refresh.

Terric reached across Shame and took the disk out of his hand, and pressed another disk into it.

Shame hesitated.

Eleanor, who stood right behind both Shame and Terric, put her hand on Shame’s other shoulder. I couldn’t see what she said, but I saw her nod.

Shame drew the blended glyphs for Rebound, Tangle, and Refresh in quick, sure strokes that fell across the entire room like deep blue tendrils of fog covering the floor with tiny spots of candle flames flickering.