Alchemist's Kiss (30 page)

“Gecko and Baiandelio working for Victor.” Archie said to me, confirming what we already knew. “What else?”

Grayson drew in another deep, shaky breath. “The two buildings closest to the well. The old wizard with the gnarled hands guards the men, and the mean one with the hat guards the children.”

“That son of a whore still has my hat?”

I rolled my eyes as Archie cursed Gecko again. “Are there wards? Magical protections on the prisoners?” I asked Grayson.

“
Cruen ta mors
,   around the buildings. They set it after I slipped away.”

I winced.
Cruen ta mors
literally meant “bloody death”. It was a particularly nasty warding spell that liquefied the organs of anyone who tried to cross the boundary without the casting wizard’s permission. I thought back to what I knew of the aether, and I guessed that millions of aether particles would be sacrificed when they broke their rules and killed a living thing during the blood magic spell.

“Can we undo it?” I asked Archie, “Is there a counter?”

“One.” I thought the slightly satisfied and bloodthirsty smile that slid across his lips was the thing that made Grayson swallow hard beside me. “We kill the bastards who cast it.”

I had to admit that the idea had appeal. “How?”

Archie patted his bag. “With a spell of our own.”

“They’re very powerful.” Grayson said from beside me.

“This spell was created by Icarus Kane.” Archie’s smile grew, and now he was a shark who smelled blood in the water, all teeth and biting rage. “There’s not a wizard alive who could do better.”

“He’s right.” I knew my pride in Icarus shone through to my words, but I didn’t care. He
was
the most powerful wizard in the world.

Grayson knew Icarus as the warden, the Grand Adept, but he hesitated at believing he was powerful enough to defeat two dark wizards with a single spell. I patted his arm and smiled at him.

“What is your focus, Grayson?”

He stiffened and pulled away from me, his features growing sterner as he aged before my eyes. He went from a frightened young mage to a serious wizard. I saw the way his hands clenched at his sides and it piqued my interest. I only grew more curious when he answered simply, “Electrical current.” The mages of Desmond House all had magical talents that leaned in that direction, but something about the way Grayson wouldn’t meet my eyes made me wonder if he was telling us the whole truth. The aether was eager to assist these wizards in creating electrical current that powered the world, but Grayson Trimble wasn’t any ordinary electric mage. I knew it as well as I knew my own name. Still, our time was short so I let him have his subterfuge and vowed to dig deeper into his secrets at a later time.

“Very well. You may come in handy, Grayson.” I ignored the slack-jawed bewilderment on Archie’s face. “If you will, of course.”

“Those children are my charges. This is my year to teach in the school, and half my class is in that building. I’ll do what I have to do.”

I looked at Archie, who only shrugged at me in acquiescence to my wishes. “Good. The spell is a complicated one, and Archie and I will need time to draw the circle and work the magic. Can you create a field around us, blocking the wizards from us as we work?”

Archie’s eyebrow went up as if he was surprised at my idea. I winked at him and looked back to Grayson. The younger mage nodded, afraid but ready to help. He was a courageous man, willing to fight despite his fear.

“Good.” I tucked his arm in mine and turned to Archie. “How close will we need to be?”

“Within a few yards.”

I forced down the niggle of fear in my gut and felt the rush of adrenaline spike my veins. My cheeks grew hot with it, and breathed deep to quell the nausea. “Into town we go, then.”

***

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

Icarus let the words play through his head as he marched toward Longmoore. The serene little village had once held all the appeal of gruel and curdled butter to a child with grand dreams. Now, he would give anything to see it whole and bustling with life again. Even the flowers along the roadside were overgrown with weeds and dying from neglect. Another tragedy he could blame on his father. Victor and his hunger for power was the cause of all the grief and despair that lingered in the soil and in his heart.

“You were right, Mother.” He said to the wind. “One cannot appreciate peace until there is war.” How he longed for the nights in Longmoore before the fire, listening to her sing as she brushed his sister’s hair or carded wool.

“I knew you would come.”

Icarus froze as his father’s voice came to him on the breeze, covered in roses and rot. “I won’t run anymore.” he answered.

“You are everything I had hoped you would become, my son.”

The pleased pride in Victor’s voice made Icarus’ hairs stand up, but he kept his voice calm. That same insistent tickle in his mind had him wincing, but he ignored it again. “I am not a dark wizard.”

Victor’s laugh made the birds take flight, the whole flock of them screaming at the sound as they ran. Icarus could understand their desire to get as far away from his father as fast as they could.

“Come to me, Icarus. Let us see what you have become.”

Icarus trudged resolutely forward, feeling the eyes of the other two dark wizards on him as he passed through the entrance of the town to the town square. He stiffened at hot breath on his neck and turned to see the shadowed face of his old enemy just behind his shoulder. He froze but did not fully turn, refusing to give the bastard the satisfaction. “Baiandelio.”

“Icarussssss.” His name was hissed, as if the man’s forked tongue wasn’t the only part of him that had become reptilian. “I will eat the marrow from your bonessssss.”

“Get in line.”

Icarus moved on, leaving the dark wizard in the shadows. He could feel other eyes on him and he turned his head to see faces pressed together in the doorway of one of the big huts. Children. He winced, but kept moving. His eyes strayed back, and latched onto a pair of big blue ones staring hard at him. He recognized the wide gaze and the freckled face it belonged to, under a fall of shining blonde curls.
Cassie.
The little girl Cora had befriended in the market. He knew she recognized him, too, and her mouth puckered in an “oh” of excitement. He steeled his heart, knowing that he could not kill Baiandelio and Gecko and run with the children as he longed to do. The moment he showed he cared for them, or her especially, they would become pawns his father could use to control him. He broke her stare and looked away, ignoring the disappointment and fear that replaced her adoration. He walked away, but his heart beat hard. He hoped Archimedes and Cora were ready. They would save the girl and the others, he knew. He had to deal with his father once and for all.

“The spell requires a circle.” Archie handed me the chalk and a bag of salt. “Three feet, or four, wide.”

“I know how to draw a circle.”

His lips twitched but he did not argue. His eyes strayed to Grayson who moved quietly behind us as we approached the town square.

“Do you think the boy is trustworthy?”

“The
boy
is only a bit younger than us.” I reminded him. “And yes, I think Grayson can be trusted.”

“He was lying when he said his focus is electrical.”

“Not lying, but definitely hiding something.” I agreed. I scratched my nose, ignoring Archie’s chuckle at the chalk dust left behind. I wiped it off as he shrugged.

“I’ll kill him if I must.”

“Archie!”

He stared at me with a hard look in his eyes as I chanced a look at Grayson. He was walking ahead with a stern, thoughtful look, and did not appear to have heard Archie’s comment.

“We don’t kill innocent people.”

“If he’s not with us he’s against us.”

I couldn’t disagree. If he chose to fight with Victor he would be our enemy by default. “I do not think that is the case.” I clenched the chalk tight in my hands. I hoped that wasn’t the case. I liked Grayson Trimble and would hate to find my judgments wrong on so many levels.

Archie waved us to a crouch at the edge of the town in a thicket of brush. He pointed, and I saw a thin man with sallow skin and a bowler traipsing jauntily outside one of the larger huts.

“Gecko?” I guessed.

Archie’s nod was stiff, his eyes locked on his bowler. I squeezed his shoulder as Grayson leaned between us to point out the other hut. It was only when I squinted that I could see the faint outline of a man in the shadows of the building.

“Are you ready?” I asked our young mage, and he nodded, his eyes locked on the shadowy figure.

Archie raised his hand and chanted the spell under his breath quietly, weaving the ward so carefully and tightly that even the dark wizards would not sense the magic as it was worked. I smiled at him as he concentrated, a sheen of perspiration on his forehead.

“I’ve never seen wards like those.” Grayson’s eyes were wide as he watched Archie work. “The rumors are true, then.”

“Rumors?”

He looked at me, “They say that you three are powerful. More powerful than a House of soldiers. You’ve chased demons and destroyed them with a word when a lesser mage might have failed.”

“Flattering, but chasing demons is dirty, bloody work. Don’t let stories change that fact.”

He nodded as Archie breathed a sigh, finishing the ward. We would now be able to cross into the edge of the town square without being seen. The minute we finished the circle the spell would lift, and Grayson would have to protect us.

“The aether will respond to you as it never has before.” I said to Grayson as we palmed the chalk and salt. I handed him a leather sack full of salt. “Don’t let it scare you.”

“Aether has never scared me.”

I grinned and reached for Archie’s hand. With bated breath we stepped over the border of foliage and into the town. It was much the same as Icarus’ memory, if more neglected and drooping. Grayson stayed close, his eyes on the dark wizards, who continued with their watch of the prisoners and seemed to pay us no mind.

I moved ten paces from Archie and bent, starting my half of the circle. He did the same, meeting me in the middle of the first arc. I could already feel the tidal pull of the aether as it gathered, and I knew the dark wizards would soon feel it, too. We drew the second half more quickly, our hands touching at the second arc. I moved away and drew the runes that Icarus had insisted must be drawn. Exactly as he’d instructed, I placed them at equidistant points around the circle.

“I’ve never seen this spell.”

I nodded to Grayson, not taking my eyes from the painstaking process of making the lines and curls that constituted a full rune. “It is of Icarus’ making.”

“How do you know it will work?”

I grinned at his naivety. “Because Icarus said it will.”

He moved back a bit and I heard the crack of his chalk in his hand as his fingers closed over it. I stood and moved to Archie as he finished the last of his own runes. The pressure inside the circle was growing as the aether moved to it, and we stood back to back in the center.

“Don’t let them get close.” I warned Grayson. “The aether will protect you because I ask it to, but these aren’t ordinary dark wizards. They are more powerful than most.”

He nodded and backed to the edge of the square.

“Do you remember the words?” I teased Archie, and he growled at me in mock anger as we locked our hands together, palm to palm. The metal of his mechanical hand was cold against my skin. It hurt my shoulders to stand that way, but it would allow the aether to circulate through and around us in a vortex of unimaginable power. We would become a diving rod, pulling it from its plane to ours and out to do our bidding.

Rydym yn canu i chi can, oh brodyr a chwiorydd (
we sing to you a song, oh brothers and sisters)

Dewch i ni ngoleuni tragwyddoldeb a’r tan y ser
(bring to us the light of eternity and the fire of the stars)

I saw the shadowy wizard’s head go up as Archie and I said the words to the spell. He did not step from the darkness, but a hiss and a pointed finger drew the attention of the sallow man. His beady eyes narrowed and the tip of his tongue went across yellow teeth.

“Grayson!” I looked to the younger mage and he stood, raising his hands up to the sky. My eyes widened at the circle of runes he’d drawn around himself. They were old, practically ancient, and far too advanced for a simple electrical wizard. His hazel eyes went wide as they bulged and the color drained from them, leaving them stark white. His lips moved as he gathered the electrical current from the air, the aether culling it and carrying it to his hands. Soon he had a large glowing ball of energy contained in his palms.

The snaggle-toothed Gecko was nearly upon us, his own hands raised as he chanted the ugly words of a blood magic spell. He’d cut his own finger, I saw, and his blood dripped on the dirt as he walked.

“Hurry, Grayson!”

The boy’s hands moved slowly, drawing the whirling ball of energy with them. Soon they were aimed, fingers out, directly at us. I felt Archie stiffen and I wondered, too, if he would burn us to cinders with it, or protect us. The ball flew from his hands with his word, and I flinched as it neared. It did not hit us, but expanded as it flew, encapsulating us with golden light.

“The boy was certainly hiding something.” Archie said with wonder as the sphere Grayson had contained us within whirred around us too fast to properly see.

“No time to wonder about that.” I closed my eyes. “We have to finish this.”

I could feel Archie’s nod as we grasped our hands more tightly together and finished Icarus’ spell.

Rydym yn troi mewn pryd i ffyrd
(we turn in time to ancient ways)

Hynafol Gwarchod y byrd yr ydym yn cysgu
(Guard the world in which we sleep)

Diogelu ni, frodyr, o’r pla hwn
(Protect us, brothers, from this scourge)

Ein harbed rhag y tywyllwch
(Save us from the dark)

Nodd y tywyllwch gan ein gelyn
(Sap the dark from our enemy)

I held my breath as the golden glow of Grayson’s protective barrier grew dark and a shadow covered it. The aether was hot and thick around us as the echo of our words bounced within our shell. I wanted to cover my ears as it boomed against my eardrums, but I dared not break my connection with Archie.

“Did it work?” Archie’s voice was loud against the howl of the aether around us.

“I don’t know!” I confessed. “The spell doesn’t break any of the rules the aether put forth. We didn’t ask for bloodshed, we didn’t try to change time or kill anyone. Icarus’ thinking is sound.”

“
Cruen ta mors
is down, at least.”

He was right, the blood magic had been wiped away by the aether.

I stumbled as a concussive force rumbled the ground beneath my feet. I held on to Archie even as my arms screamed at the pull is his weight on mine. I tensed as the filaments of electricity and aether surrounding us began to flicker. I knew now was the time we would either persevere against Bainandelio and Gecko, or we would be killed by dark magic the moment the barrier came down.

“I don’t want to die, Archie.”

His fingers were tight on mine. “Neither do I.”

I took a deep breath, fighting the instinct to run. My heart hammered against my ribs and wondered if I would ever see Icarus again.

“It’s going down.” Archie warned, and I pressed my back against his. The barrier flickered again, whirls of energy raising my hair.

When the barrier dropped it fell like a curtain, a shower of sparks that fizzled on the ground. I could see Grayson, his eyes still white with his expenditure of power.

I turned my head and locked eyes with the thin man. “That’s Archie’s hat.”

The cough and rumble against my back must have been Archie’s laugh.

“Yer a fine bird, ye are.” The tongue went across the teeth again, and I tried hard to still my roiling stomach. He tipped Archie’s bowler in my direction, blood still dripping from his thumb. “That was a right bit’o magic, but yer boy is fizzled I’d say.” The beady eyes narrowed impossibly farther still. “Come out and play, Archie boyo.”

I felt Archie strain against my arms but I held on tight to his hands and he stilled. I drew Gecko’s eyes back to mine.

“I’m going to kill you for what you did to Archie.”

His laugh was rough, shaking his emaciated frame. I could see the dark magic taking its toll on him as he died slowly, rotting from the inside. His eyes were alive with power and madness as he licked his dry flaking lips. “Sure ye be tryin’, bird, sure ye be.” He sucked his lower lip into his mouth, a dry popping sound making me shiver. “Come out and try.”

I wasn’t stupid. The moment we broke the barrier of salt and chalk the wizards could physically touch us. No amount of goading was going to bring me from the circle.

I stiffened as a hiss carried on the wind.

Aaarrchhhiiimmeeddeess.

Archie’s head went up and I could feel him strain against my hold.

“Baiandelio, come out and fight you coward.”

Sssstttepp frroommm the ccciirrccclee, Aaarrcchhiiimmeeddeess.

“No, Archie.” I squeezed his metal hand so hard the sharp curve of the copper cut into my fingers. Wet blood oozed, but I held tight.

“A-a-dept.”

I swung my head toward Grayson. He was wavering on his feet but he pointed with a trembling finger to the hut.

“Let her go, Baiandelio.”

I gasped as I saw the wizard in the shadows had a young girl by the throat. I recognized the wild blonde curls and the frightened blue eyes. “Cassandra.”

Commme, Arrchhimmeeddeesss. Commee too mee oorr I kill hhheerrr.

“What do I do, Cora?” Archie’s voice was hoarse, his whole body shaking against mine. “If I break the circle they’ll attack.”

“If’n ye don’t the girly dies.”

Gecko cackled at my glare. Another pop as his lip left his mouth, the skin broken where he’d chewed on it.

“The aether won’t let you kill him.” I warned Archie, loosening my hold on his hands. “You’ll have to find another way.”

“I’ll choke the life out of him with my bare hands.” Archie’s voice was low and deadly. “And you?”

“I will deal with Gecko.”

At my proclamation the thin man clapped his hands and actually danced a bit of a jig in glee. He bowed low and tipped Archie’s bowler in my direction.

I took a deep breath and released Archie’s hands, the corridor of power between us lessening as we broke contact. The aether still swarmed, but with less force. Quickly, before I lost my nerve, I stepped over the edge of the circle, smudging the salt with my toe.

Archie stalked toward Baiandelio and I stared hard at Gecko. From the corner of my eye I saw Grayson go to his knees. He bent forward, apparently too tired to continue. Gecko laughed and backed up two steps, his body tightening.

“I hear tell mighty stories about you, bird. Yer not so fearsome without yer trinket, are ye?”

I called the aether to my palm with a word, creating a crackling fireball of power. “Let’s see, shall we?”

Archimedes was a man of action. He could not stand idly by as a dog struggled for a bone and he would not let his old enemy kill an innocent child. He, once, had been a child, before men like Baiandelio and Gecko stole his innocent wonder.

Ooooolllldd frriieend.

He winced at the sharp sound of the dark wizard’s whisper. It grated on his nerves and shivered his spine, just as it was intended to do. Ignoring the twisted mage he focused instead on the pretty blonde girl.