Lost Magic (The Swift Codex Book 3) (35 page)

I took my place amongst the team, adding to their number. Within Barnes' cloaking spell, it was bright enough to see the path easily. Outside the boundaries of the spell, everything appeared in an odd burnt-orange hue. I moved with the group. Within a few minutes we had left behind the camp and were within the confines of the cabin's lawns and gardens. We branched off, everyone going to different places, so it was just Valerin and me who went to the screen door at the end of the kitchen.

“The hallway is full of things which can get in your way,” Valerin said. “The servants seem to like to put their shoes there for some reason. Be careful. The nursery is up the stairs, second door to the right.”

I hadn't climbed any stairs using the puppet, but then I'd entered the house on the other end. I nodded, Valerin opened the door for me and passed me an earbud linked to a small battery-sized pack.

“I have one, too. Best communication given the circumstances,” he explained and clipped a tiny microphone onto my lapel. “We can hear whatever you say and some of whatever is close to you, but I'd advise you not to speak.”

With a nod, I stepped inside the house, advancing slowly as my eyes adjusted to the filtered light and distant glow of a low-lit lantern on a desk in a study. Aware of what Barnes said, I stuck to the trampled carpet as a guide for where to put my feet. As I went forward bit by bit, my breathing seemed so very very loud.

“Remember up the stairs, second door to the right,” Valerin said, the signal a little staticy.

This hallway was a different one than the one the puppet had gone through, more roundabout, and the stairs that Valerin referenced wasn't a full set, only four steps. The house creaked. I froze, trying to locate the source. It could have been someone turning over in bed and making floorboards creak, or hot water cooling in pipes. I'd been in enough spook houses that this shouldn't alarm me.

Outside the nursery stood the golem, a clay figure well over seven feet tall and three times as wide as a standard man. It didn't look like anything except a roughly-made statue, lacking in certain details such as ears and a nose. But it had eyes, and it was staring at a chalk outline of a person on the wall opposite it.

The physical amount of space the golem took up made it so the only way by him was to turn my body so I faced either towards or away from him. When I sidestepped to fit into the chalk outlines, I was left staring at the clay monstrosity with my hands by my sides and his earless, noseless face leering down at me.

“Here we go,” I muttered under my breath, steeling myself as my skin prickled with anticipation.

The golem teetered towards me, lidless eyes glaring down. My heart skipped, I wondered if it was falling and if I'd be trapped. It stopped moving and I relaxed a fraction, shifted my weight to go. Two arms shot out on either side of me and I jumped, forcing myself to stand still. Bits of clay and dust fell from its joints as it stared at me at eye level, bringing its face so close to my own that I could see the pits from a tool marking its cheek. I didn't dare to breathe.

“Fera, what's happening?” Leif asked in my earbud.

I almost didn't dare to speak with the way the golem was scrutinizing me, but I spoke on a soft breath, “Inspection. Wait.”

The golem had no expressions, it was physically impossible. But that only amplified the uncertainty in my gut, the way that I wanted it all to be over and to never have to face the creature again. Seconds passed like minutes, it doing nothing, me doing nothing.

Then there was the audible scraping of joints as it resumed its stationary stance. Inspection had been passed. I walked away.

“All's good,” I breathed into the mic. “Heading to nursery now.”

“Take it easy,” Barnes said. “Act relaxed and authoritative if you see anyone. Acting guilty is the first sign that a suspect is doing something they shouldn't be.”

My inner cheek was bleeding where I had bit it. I released my cheek and swabbed the hurt area with my tongue. The door to the nursery opened at a touch—it had not been latched. When I closed it, I did not shut it all the way, thinking there might be a reason for it having been open.

Remembering the places the woman had walked when I had spied on her with the puppet, I made it to the cradle and peered in. A slow breath escaped me.

“What is it?” Valerin asked, his voice cracked in the earbud. That he would be nervous was no surprise to me—they'd probably all be listening intently to the slightest sound I made.

“She's fine,” I said. “Picking her up now. Sleeping.”

“Wait, check the area first,” Leif warned.

I did so, to the best of my ability, but detecting spells wasn't a talent I'd taken a lot of time to develop yet. Barnes talked me through it, and by the time I was done, she was awake and squinting.

“Hello, there,” I said to her and she made a grunting noise which made my blood run cold fearing someone else had heard it. Still, I picked her up and held her. For a few seconds, I let myself adjust to her weight in my arms. “How do I get out?”

“Back the way you came,” Barnes said.

“The golem?”

“Better than what waits for you in the other hallway.”

Thrilling.

I left the nursery, walked by the other door, and stepped in front of the golem again. I wasn't sure if it would do another inspection or just let me by, so I remained stationary. The golem didn't move, for better or for worse. I hoped it was for the better.

Then it leaned downward again, releasing the scent of wet rocks and dry, dusty wind. Once more its expressionless face leered down at me, triggering a nervous flutter in my stomach. This time, I thought for sure there was something wrong, something menacing in its countenance. Precisely how this time was any different from last time, I couldn't say.

The golem was as stiff and unchanging as it had been before, and its behavior was not out of the ordinary. And yet, I felt the tiny hairs across the back of m neck stand upright, and I resisted an urge to shudder. That's when I saw a faint light emanating from behind its eye as it stared unblinking at Anna.

As an arm came up, the honeysuckle pin began to glimmer beneath her blanket and a strong florally aroma released. When the arm moved for her, I felt a jolt cut through the air the split-second before the golem's arm jerked and fell off at the shoulder, the cut as clean as if a master swordsman had severed limb from body.

The golem stood upright and the pin faded.

Slowly, I continued on my way, putting first one foot on the other side of the golem, then the next. I glanced over my shoulder, but it didn't move. Anna was beginning to fuss. I hated to think what would happen if she pitched a fit, but certainly the household was accustomed to her sounds by now.

I was walking down the worn path to the back door when a door clicked open.

“Going somewhere?” an oily voice asked, smooth and silky and all too familiar.

I faked a yawn while saying, “Outside. Burping.”

“While I appreciate your consideration for not disturbing my sleep, you would accomplish this if you were to instead follow the rules outlined in your contract and remain indoors.”

I nodded, patting Anna on the back while not facing Gregor Cole. “I thought … “

“Your job is to perform as agreed and nothing else.”

I nodded again.

“Turn around.”

Releasing a breath which wanted to freeze me up, I turned around, Aunt Linnia's lessons about illusions foremost in my mind. Gregor Cole's high cheek bones were illuminated in the light from the study he had just left, and in his hand was a notebook. His brow wrinkled in confusion. He gave me a dismissive wave.

Victory and relief hit me at once. I bowed my head and went to leave.

“Stop.”

I was too far from the door and too enveloped within his wards to do otherwise, so I stopped and looked back at him again.

Admiration was on his face now, a surprising contrast to what I'd always expected of him.

“You are one talented woman. Very talented. In spellcasting and illusion. But your acting leaves something to be desired, Miss Swift, and I will not forget the way you killed me.”

I squared my shoulders. “And I will not forget the way you killed me.”

My earbud rang with a cacophony of voices, all of them yelling, “Get out! Get out now!”

I had just enough time to pull up a defensive spell before Cole's incapacitation spell struck. The burn spread through the spell and dissipated in a blinding flash. Vision darkened but I didn't lose track of everything. Wards came to life throughout the house, snapping down shutters and flooding the place with lantern light.

Outside, I heard people yelling things to one another, a call-and-response which was too fast for me to even register hearing it. Then the static amplified in my ears until that was all I could hear as I froze, stock still, concerned what would happen if I set foot in the wrong room.

“You would be very wise to remain as you are, Miss Swift, and tell those outside to not attack the house,” Gregor Cole said.

“And why would I tell them to stand down?” I asked.

“Because if they do not, I will order my walking animations unleashed, and I do not think your team would like to see my little,” he considered what word to use, “improvements on the last design.”

Barnes would be able to cope with walking animations, and probably Mordon and Valerin as well. However when it came to Leif and the Selestiani members, I was not so sure. Gregor Cole reached for his pocket.

“Guys, withdraw.”

“Choose your words carefully,” Cole said.

“Just do it. I can't hear you, so don't ask questions. Just withdraw.”

I held Cole's attention as seconds ticked by, and he let his hand fall away from his pocket. “Impressive. Very impressive. How a stray waif with no hope for the future and no connections has gained such power in such a brief lapse of time. It almost gives one reason to believe in divine influence.”

Cole advanced on me, step by slow step, assessing me with cool calculation. I set my shoulders back and stayed put, refusing to retreat, even though I didn't know where I would have gone to. Cole's hand lashed out, not to strike a blow, but to snatch the earbud and throw it to the ground. Though I hadn't ducked out of the way, it still stung from where his nail had caught on my ear lobe. Anna was in my arms, her sleepy expression gone and red wrinkles taking its place.

“Give me the child.”

I shook my head.

He said, “Give me the child, or I will see to it that my informant leaks another story, this one about your precious colony.”

I scoffed, “Go on, then. See if I won't stop this one, too.”

Cole's expression darkened, his teeth became points, and I saw the way his skin was beginning to stretch thinly over jutting bones.

“Be careful,” I said. “Lose yourself too much and you won't have any choice but to go wendigo in front of a lot of witnesses.”

He curled a lip, but the fangs had disappeared. “
Give me the child,” he snarled and grabbed her blanket.

Exactly what happened made sense in retrospect. At the time there was a flash, a push, and the howl of wolves. In retrospect, it happened like this: One instant he was reaching for her, had her blanket between his fingers; the next instant it felt like a person had stepped between us and shoved the both of us in opposite directions. I hit the side of the hallway, he was propelled into a little sofa table with a bowl of painted eggs upon it. As he hit the table, his fist crunched the eggs. Rather than whole eggs, they were the painted shell of an egg with its insides emptied. They broke into pieces, surprisingly sharp shards breaking skin. Cole's eyes bulged. The hiss of spells whispered through the hall, down the stairs, and out the door, transforming as they went into a pack of howling wolves.

I'd read about that defensive spell before. It was called The North Wind. They'd attack whatever was in their way, but their real purpose was to open the gates for other defenses, things either too dangerous to unleash in person, or too difficult to get to. In any case, it made for the most theatrical spell I'd ever seen, even if it was gone in less than a second.